Angular Faceted Broken Rubble
for 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano and cello
2025
Presented by the Mannes School of Music a the Glassbox Theatre
Recording by Elise Martinez, Mia Farinelli, Jasmine Karimova, and Bruno Robles-Rendón. (Original performance by Julie-Michelle Manohar, Mia Farinelli, Jasmine Karimova, and Bruno Robles-Rendón)
Angular Faceted Broken Rubble is about about a vast radioactive rock-pile located in Weldon Springs, Missouri. This
structure contains over a million square meters of disposed hazardous waste from an old chemical plant and a
uranium ore processing plant. The text of Angular Faceted Broken Rubble is derived entirely from an extensive list
of adjectives I drafted to describe this mound. The piece juxtaposes the rock-pile's toxic prescence to both it's
environment and neighboring community against that same community's fascination with it. It has become a sight
for school trips as well as local tourist attraction. This dichotomy forms a larger metaphor for people's large scale
passivity and acceptance with the harm and deterioration of their natural enviornments and ultimately of their own
health and wellness.