"Something With Strawberries," comp. Tyler Lustek (2023) performed on UWEC TV-10 Sounds of the Valley, 4/17/2023 The Tyler Lustek Confluence Dr. Aaron Hedenstrom, tenor sax Jan Hora, flugelhorn Tyler Lustek, keys & composition Will DeBlaey, bass North Skager, drums

Tyler Lustek & Dean Granros at 200 Main Art & Wine, Feb 16, 2023

Confluence by Tyler Lustek (2021) Tyler Lustek, piano North Skager, drums Will DeBlaey, bass at 200 Main Art & Wine, February 9, 2023

Confluence (2021) Tyler Lustek Grad Recital, 4/9/2022 @7pm, NIU Recital Hall feat. David Perez Delgado (saxes), Kirby Fellis (trombone), Chano Cruz (bass), Noah Brooks (drums)

Survival of the Spirit - composed by Tyler Lustek (2020) As performed at Tyler Lustek's Graduate Recital, 4/9/2022 @ 7pm I composed Survival of the Spirit in fall of 2020, a month or two after I had started my graduate degree and the world was deep in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, almost all school and social functions were relegated inside and online. I initially composed Survival of the Spirit to reflect my personal journey through the pandemic, but it now represents everyone's journey and how the pandemic has affected every single aspect of every single person's life. The piece is named after an assemblage art piece by Betye Saar, an influential artist in the Black Arts Movement.

I Mean You by Thelonious Monk The Chano Cruz Trio Tyler Lustek, keys Chano Cruz, bass Rodrigo Villanueva, drums Recorded @ Eden on the River, St. Charles, IL 3/4/22

I started writing what eventually became “The Other Side” in early January 2021 as a personal challenge to compose in Locrian mode. I started these modal experimentations days before the Capitol riots occurred on January 6th, 2021. Feeling shocked, saddened, and outraged by the turn of events, I turned again to the Locrian mode to process my thoughts on the terrifying attack on our nation’s Capitol; particularly, I focused on emphasizing the mode’s instability and dissonance to reflect the dark times our country had been through. The name for this piece comes from a speech given by former President Donald Trump, broadcast two hours after the beginning of the Capitol attacks. Trump started this speech as follows; "I know your pain, I know you're hurt; we had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side." At that moment in our nation's history, we needed a leader who could de-escalate the situation and ensure that the counting of ballots in the Capitol building would go on as planned. Instead, Trump used that moment as a soapbox to continue discrediting the 2020 election results, encouraging violence at the Capitol building, and painting "the other side" (i.e., anyone who didn't agree with him and his supporters) as the conspirators and instigators of the attack. In that moment of real, existential crisis, our nation was a rudderless ship, barrelling on a direct course to facism and the destruction of democracy. “The Other Side” articulates my feelings on the Capitol attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social and political atmosphere of the United States of the last two years. The serpentine melodies and bitonal harmonies in the first half of the head (mm. 17 - 53) echo feelings of uncertainty, rage, and despair, while the second half of the head (mm. 54 - 83) uses the same exact melodies over completely recontextualized harmonies, providing an air of cautious optimism. The final statement (mm. 84 - 110) represents a poignant warning for the future; a “return to normalcy” would represent a massive societal failure, because it would show that we have not learned from our mistakes. Jared Saenz, alto sax David Perez Delgado, tenor sax Kirby Fellis, trombone Sean Rzewnicki, bass Tyler Lustek, piano Noah Brooks, drums Recorded on 2/17/2022, Northern Illinois University School of Music The Other Side received the Runner-Up Award for the 2022 Jan Bach Prize in Composition at the NIU Jan Bach Memorial Concert on May 1st, 2022. Thanks to Professors David Maki and Brian Penkrot, for your compositional advice and support.

The Noah Brooks Coalition performing "Late Nights" live on Sessions from Studio A. Listen to the full set on our website - https://www.northernpublicradio.org/sessions-from-studio-a Find more from The Noah Brooks Coalition on Facebook and Bandcamp - https://www.facebook.com/TheNoahBrooksCoalition https://thenoahbrookscoalition.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-night

Addison Jordan, saxophone & clarinet / composition Tyler Lustek, keys Chano Cruz, bass Alex Souris, drums Live at Cafe Mustache in Chicago, IL 1/17/22