Play Space is a collection of music inspired by the places that shaped us. When we met as freshmen, we started writing duo guitar music that combined images of the places we grew up – the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (for Lulu) and New York City (for Maya) – with imaginary landscapes. These pieces also combined our musical upbringings, merging jazz, classical, and songwriting sensibilities.

Over the past year, we’ve expanded upon these pieces and orchestrated them for a chamber ensemble. We wrote and rewrote, imagining how our melodies might sing more on an oboe or a trumpet, how chord voicings could stretch beyond the confines of six strings, and how key clicks and bow scratches could break us out of the textures we’re so familiar with on our guitars. In orchestrating, we also found a new appreciation for the clarity and honesty of the duo arrangements and wanted to share both versions side by side.

Having both studied in conservatory environments for jazz and classical music, we found ourselves disillusioned by the way these genres are often presented as inaccessible and exclusionary. A large part of our creative process, both in our writing and in our performance goals, has been about trying to make our music welcoming without compromising on complexity.

We've brought together a wonderful group of student musicians, mostly classically trained but some with more improvisational backgrounds, with the hopes of building a community of musicians who are willing to explore together and bring these compositions to life.