Embedded Files
Medusa
Medusa
opera for five singers & ensemble
opera for five singers & ensemble
Cast
Medusa - Hella Termeulen & Eva Stone-Barney
Poseidon - Twm Tegid Brunton
Athena - Teresa Cachada
Euryale - Alice Hermand
Stheno - Júlia Guix i Estrada
Composer - Goi Ywei Chern
Librettist - Jess McNulty
Conductor - Brian Choi
Director - Mayra Stergiou
Silk Street Music Hall, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London
11 July 2025
"This is a stunning reimagining of a well-trodden story, uplifted by an excellent score, captivating performances, and a reminder of the true tragedy of Medusa — that she was ever forced to become a monster in the first place."
Review by Chanelle June, Everything Theatre
for contrabass (or bass) clarinet & string trio
for contrabass (or bass) clarinet & string trio
Contrabass Clarinet - Scott Lygate
Violin - Gordon Bragg
Viola - Ruth Gibson
Cello - Christian Elliott
Dumfries House Estate, Ayrshire
10 August 2024
Performed as part of The Cumnock Tryst International Summer School for Composers
The other crag is lower - you will see, Odysseus -
though both lie side-by-side, an arrow-shot apart.
Atop it a great fig-tree rises, shaggy with leaves,
beneath it awesome Charybdis gulps the dark water down.
Three times a day she vomits it up, three times she gulps it down,
that terror! Don't be there when the whirlpool swallows down -
not even the earthquake god could save you from disaster.
No, hug Scylla's crag - sail on past her - top speed!
Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship
than lose your entire crew.
- Circe to Odysseus, The Odyssey, Homer (trans. Fagles)
for alto flute & guitar
for alto flute & guitar
I. Cothon
II. Agora
III. Byrsa Hill
IV. Tophet
V. Megara
Alto Flute - Jess McNulty
Guitar - Goi Ywei Chern
This performance took place before the fourth movement, Tophet, was composed.
St James's Church Sussex Gardens, London
23 January 2024
About Qart Hadasht
About Qart Hadasht
The five movements of this piece are named after various locations within the ancient city after which this piece is named - Qart Hadasht, meaning New City, in the punic tongue, better known in modern times by the anglicised version of its Greek and Roman name - Carthage.
The Cothon was the great harbour from which the Carthaginians projected their power throughout the Mediterranean. It consisted of a rectangular commercial harbour leading into a circular military harbour.
The Agora was the marketplace and public square of the city. Trade, politics, and festivities would likely have taken place there, creating a lively, energetic atmosphere.
Byrsa Hill was, in legend, the place where Elissa, also known as Dido, first founded the city after fleeing from Tyre. A fortified citadel sat atop the hill, in which the Temple of Eshmun was located at the end of a great staircase.
The Tophet was the site at which human child sacrifices took place, in front a a statue of the god Baal Hammon, during times of great calamity. According to Plutarch, "the whole space in front of the statue was filled with the sound of flutes and drums, so that the cries could not be heard."
The Megara was a district described by Appian as "planted with gardens and full of fruit-bearing trees divided off by low walls, hedges, and brambles, besides deep ditches full of water running in every direction".
Across the piece I imagine moving through the city, starting from entering the commercial harbour from the sea and moving into the military harbour in Cothon, walking through the marketplace and public square in Agora, climbing the great staircase to the temple in Byrsa Hill, and travelling across the gardens and meadows in Megara.
OVERLOAD
OVERLOAD
for alto flute and ensemble of clarinet, bassoon, harp, violin, viola, and cello
for alto flute and ensemble of clarinet, bassoon, harp, violin, viola, and cello
Alto flute - Lara Ali
Clarinet - Birce Kayhan
Bassoon - John Pope
Piano (playing the harp part) - Efe Yüksel
Violin - Argyro Meleniou
Viola - Rebekah Dickinson
Cello - Kim Ji Hong
Conductor - Jon Paul Mayse
Silk Street Music Hall, Guildhall School fo Music and Drama, London
24 March 2026
OVERLOAD was composed as a free composition during the finals of the 11th International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition in 2023, in which two pieces had to be composed within five days based on given musical material - in this case, the first two bars of Due Ricercari Sul Nome BACH by Alfredo Casella. In this competition Goi was awarded first prize in the senior category, as well as special prizes for the best chamber music and best polyphonic music.
for soprano and piano
for soprano and piano
Letter from Heaven (lyrics by Yvonne Ugarte)
I now live on the edge of your world
The torch of your love for me burns ever bright
Your strength and your courage are my guiding light
You taught me so much when I lived down on earth
Compassion and love
Always knowing my worth
You'll still hear my voice in the breeze through the trees
Do not be disheartened, despairing or sad
For I'm always there with you
My hero, my Dad
Soprano - Anusha Merrin
Piano - Chunmeng Ge
Leeds Minster, Leeds
17 April 2024
Thanks to Leeds Lieder for this project and Apple and Biscuit Recordings (instagram @appleandbiscuit) for the recording.
for mezzo-soprano, alto flute, clarinet, and harp
for mezzo-soprano, alto flute, clarinet, and harp
Mezzo-soprano - Eva Stone-Barney
Alto flute - Jess McNulty
Clarinet - Birce Kayhan
Piano (playing the harp part) - Efe Yüksel
Conductor - Jacob Cavendish
Silk Street Music Hall, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London
24 March 2026
About On Destruction and Death in Ancient Times
About On Destruction and Death in Ancient Times
This song cycle consists of three texts of ancient city laments and one meditation, all translated into English. In the first song, Fragment from a Prayer for the City of Ur, there are words missing from the text due to damage to the cuneiform tablets they were found on. The text used in the songs are below.
I. Fragment from A Prayer for the City of Ur
Text from Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions, trans. George A. Barton
Thy temples are destroyed like a jar that is smashed.
Thy city, the second which thou foundest, is struck down; it cries out.
Thy house weeps; O speak, lift it up!
Like thy city it is overthrown.
Thy city, the dwelling of its lady, didst thou establish;
let it not be moved!
Thy dwelling, the yoke of the abyss, thou didst establish
As a plant protected of Ninmul, the lady;
The. . . thou didst found.
Its lady as protectress entered.
On her weeping thou thinkest; thy anger is unfavorable!
Heartfelt tears flow; they are not checked; they fall.
She cries before thee with thoughts,
A loud voice she lifts up:
“Unto thy city give rest; it is caught’’ she cries.
Thy house . . .verily is shattered like thy. . . . it is smashed.
Ur was founded, it was established;
Like a .... it is caught, it cries out.
Its ruin verily abounds; for thee it abounds;
Thy heart . . .is broken;
II. Lament for Corinth
Text by Antipater of Sidon, trans. W. R. Paton, The Greek Anthology
Where is thy celebrated beauty, Doric Corinth?
Where are the battlements of thy towers and thy ancient possessions?
Where are the temples of the immortals, the houses and the matrons of the town of Sisyphus, and her myriads of people?
Not even a trace is left of thee, most unhappy of towns, but war has seized on and devoured everything.
We alone, the Nereids, Ocean's daughters, remain inviolate, and lament, like halcyons, thy sorrows.
III. Lament for Jerusalem
Text ascribed to Jeremiah, Bible, King James Version
Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
IV. Meditation
Text by Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, trans. Jeremy Collier
It will not be long before you will have forgotten
all the world, and in a little time all the world
will forget you too.
Flute - Beth Stone
Bass Clarinet - Jasper Perry
Tenor Saxophone - Sophia Elger
Violin - Maja Horvat
Viola - Elena Accogli
Cello - Colin Alexander
Conductor - Nicolo Foron
Royal College of Music, London
2020
"Do you remember a certain Tveritinov? I had him detained sometime last autumn."
"Why do you ask?" the investigator knitted his brows, significantly.
"Just asking... I was interested... in the outcome."
"We'll take care of your Tveritinov. We never make mistakes."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, An Incident at Krechetovka Station
Cycles
Cycles
for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, and cello
for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, and cello
The cyclic structure of the work, hence its title, was an attempt to move away from the formal manner used in the other pieces I composed around this time (2021), defined by a linear organicism.
The formal constraints of cycles and repetition centre around two ‘events’, one entirely consisting of groups of three semiquavers and one of five semiquavers. These appear at regular intervals; one spaced out equally to appear six times in the piece, and the other four times. These groups only overlap in their first and last presentations, resulting in a 3:5 rhythmic ratio. The non-‘events’ are rhythmically less constrained, becoming successively more contrapuntally complex.
The recording of this piece was made by the Explore Ensemble and Ondrej Soukup in 2021.
List of Compositions
List of Compositions
Solo
Duo
Qart Hadasht for alto flute and guitar
Duration: 18'
Composed in 2023 (edited 2025)
Ozymandias for alto flute and harp
Duration: 5'50''
Composed in 2019
Undergrowth for violin and harp
Duration: 2'25''
Composed in 2017
Quartet
Quintet
Singha for flute, clarinet, harp, violin, and cello
Duration: 10'30''
Composed in 2026
Along the River for wind quintet
Duration: 6'40''
Composed in 2018
Revelation for piano quintet
Duration: 6'10''
Composed in 2016
Simple Movement for wind quintet
Duration: 5'30''
Composed in 2015 (rev. 2021)
Sextet
Cycles for sextet (flute, clarinet in Bb, piano, violin, viola, cello)
Duration: 8'10''
Composed in 2021
We Never Make Mistakes for sextet (flute, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, violin, viola, cello)
Duration: 9'40''
Composed in 2020
Ascent into the Unknown (clarinet in Bb OR alto saxophone, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass)
Duration: 7'10''
Composed in 2015
Orchestra
Thou-shalt for orchestra (3,3,3,3 4,3,3,1 perc., 2 harps, strings)
Duration: 15'
Composed in 2021
Opera
Medusa for five singers and ensemble (wind quintet, percussion, harp, string quintet)
Duration: 55''
Composed in 2025
Programme from premiere in 2025
Solo with Ensemble
OVERLOAD for alto flute and ensemble (clarinet in Bb, bassoon, harp, violin, viola, cello)
Duration: 8'20''
Composed in 2023
Undercurrent for tenor trombone and ensemble (brass quintet and percussion)
Duration: 14'
Composed in 2023
Concertino for soprano saxophone and wind ensemble (piccolo, flute + alto flute, oboe, oboe + English horn, clarinet in Bb, bass clarinet + contrabass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bassoon, contrabassoon, 2 horns in F, percussion (almglocken set + snare drum + kick drum), harp, 2 cellos
Duration: 14'20''
Composed in 2021
EGO for piano and chamber ensemble (flute, clarinet in Bb, percussion, violin, cello)
Duration: 13'
Composed in 2019
With Voice
Letter from Heaven (soprano and piano)
Duration: 4'30''
Composed in 2024
On Destruction and Death in Ancient Times (song cycle for soprano, alto flute, Bb clarinet, and harp)
Duration: 21'30''
Composed in 2023
The Tarantulas (tenor, wind quintet, and string quintet)
Duration: 22'50''
Composed in 2020
The Reflection of Narcissus (high voice and electronics)
Duration: 8'10''
Composed in 2021
With Film
Colour Study (harp, guitar, electronics, and film)
Duration: 5'50''
Composed in 2020
Colours and Industry (clarinet in Bb, 2 guitars, violin, double bass, and film)
Duration: 3'20''
Composed in 2020
With Electronics
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