Where Traces Remain

Where Traces Remain

Where Traces Remain explores what sound carries with it—what lingers, transforms, and resurfaces. The audio playback is built from layered and processed recordings of solo violin, recorded by violinist Roan Ma, and the tar, an Iranian plucked string instrument, recorded by Iranian tar player Arman Nikaeen, based in Iran.
In late Spring 2026, as internet access began to return to Iran after months of disconnection, Arman reached out to me and asked if there was a way we could collaborate. I asked him to record a collection of sounds and extended techniques on the tar for another project. As I listened to his recordings while working on Where Traces Remain, I began to hear connections between the sound worlds of the tar and violin. I became interested in bringing these sounds into the composition and exploring how the two instruments could meet and transform one another. After a period when distance and disconnection from Iran had felt especially profound, these recordings became more than musical material; they became a connection to a place that had felt increasingly distant.
The live violin moves through a spectrum of noise, fragmented musical gestures, melodic lines, and rhythmic passages, shaped by these recorded sounds and elements of Iranian music. Throughout the work, sounds emerge, disappear, transform, and leave traces that move between the live violin and the audio playback.
Where Traces Remain was commissioned by Music Toronto for violinist Roan Ma.

The work will receive its premiere on November 24, 2026, at the Jane Mallett Theatre in Toronto.

Tuesday, November 24, 2026 at 6:30 p.m (pre-concert)
Jane Mallett Theatre
27 Front Street East
Toronto, ON M5E 1B4

Stay tuned for more information.

Tickets: Music Toronto – 2026–27 Concerts