Composed in 2014 for my wife, Francesca Anderegg, and two of her advanced students, Violin 3.0 began as a pedagogical exercise but quickly evolved into a rigorous exploration of acoustic illusions. Drawing on my background as a violinist, I wanted to leverage the unique textures created when multiple players occupy the same register. This density fools the ear into perceiving not a trio, but a single "giant" instrument: a "mega-violin" possessing capabilities beyond a solo performer.

The three violins play nearly identical material in the same range, weaving in and out of one another with dizzying speed. This interlocking behavior creates a sonic profile reminiscent of high-speed computer circuitry. I found myself asking: What would the violin sound like if it had been invented in the digital age?

Violin 3.0 is my attempt to answer that question. It treats the trio as a hardware upgrade, where the traditional lyricism of the instrument is processed through a filter of mechanical precision and "circuit-like" complexity, resulting in a work that is both fascinatingly complex and relentlessly kinetic.