Steven P. James: A new comedic work "Crabs in a Bucket" – 6/9/2026 | CC Monthly Presentations

Steven writes: I will talk about my new work "Crabs in a Bucket," which was composed for and premiered at the Scotia Music Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In this presentation, I will talk about how I used tonality and form to capture the competitiveness and underhanded tactics of a turn-based card game portrayed in music, painting three wildly differing personalities that annoy, undermine, and snipe at each other. I will also discuss some of the stage directions used to enhance the music and create a clearer experience for the audience, as well as the challenges of creating a work with open/flexible instrumentation, and giving further insight into the unique rehearsal process for this piece. In addition, I'll also talk about the influence of social media and popular culture on the conception of this work, some of the larger music culture issues that this piece illustrates and engages with, and my future plans to expand this concept into a set of gamified skits. Bio: Steven James (2000 - ) is a composer and pianist from Portland, Oregon, and now based in Baltimore, Maryland. As a composer, Steven’s work has been performed or commissioned in the United States and Canada, including the SonoKlect Series Music Festival, the Galiano Island Chamber Music Society and UBC Music in British Columbia, the UGA New Music Festival, the University of Oregon keyboard department, the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, The Bridge Music Collective, the Baltimore Composer’s Forum, the College Music Society MidAtlantic Conference, Off the Dock Chamber Festival, Fear No Music, and Cascadia Composers, for whom Steven is an active board member, concert curator, and administrator. Steven holds two degrees from the University of Oregon in piano performance, and is currently finishing a Master’s degree in Composition at the Peabody Institute. An educator as well as a composer/performer, Steven was selected as a Peabody Interplay artist, teaching lectures and mentoring undergraduate composers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus. He is also an accompanist for Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids program, and has worked with Cascadia Composer’s “In Good Hands” project, which pairs together student performers and regional composers. When not pursuing any of these artistic, Steven enjoys exploring nature, writing poems and fantasy, rooting for the Oregon Ducks, and running a homebrew D&D campaign. All these hobbies serve to provide inspiration for his musical composition. This presentation is part of a monthly series by members of Cascadia Composers. They are typically held (starting in the fall of 2023) the second Tuesday of every month. For more information, please see https://cascadiacomposers.org If you'd like to support Cascadia, please see https://www.cascadiacomposers.org/donate