Commissioned and premiered by the Palisades Virtuosi.
Jilted Tango – wind and piano
A duet for wind and piano.
Program note: The give and take, push and pull in a dance of love. – RW
Audio is a midi realization of the version for Clarinet & Piano.
Both Clarinet & Piano, and Alto Flute & Piano versions are available for purchase.
In Passages – a duet
This is a duet version for violin and piano of “In Passages” – originally scored for violin soloist and string orchestra and recorded by the Croatian Chamber Orchestra with conductor Miran Vaupotic.
Just Beyond Reach
Program Note: Composed near the end of my mother’s long descent into dementia, in bearing witness to the widening gap extending beyond reach, I sought an emotional release through music – in wordless reflection and acceptance. – RW
Waiting
Video is of pianist Hayk Arsenyan’s beautiful premiere performance of Waiting at the Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA.
Tangents – for piano
Released 2008: Moods – Piano Music by American Women Composers, Max Lifchitz, piano, North/South Recordings (Audio is an excerpt)
Tangents derives its name from divergent musical lines that seem to arrive and depart from a musical center, much like fragments of thoughts that tangentially pass through conversations. – RW
Summer Nights
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
Among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music. Audio is from an early concert of piano pieces that I played from memory and recorded at Charlemagne Palestine’s Tribeca loft, NYC.
Sad Laughter (for my father)
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
This was among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music, and so was performed from memory and recorded in an early concert. It was dedicated to my father, Phillip Jones, an extraordinary man, who at the time, early in his life, was valiantly facing terminal cancer. – RW
Longing
Released 2007: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
Among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music. Performed from memory and recorded in an early concert.
If Only Knowing
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
Among my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music, and so was performed from memory and recorded in an early concert.
Hourglass
Released 2008: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, Max Lifchitz, piano, North/South Recordings
Video features pianist Nataliya Medvedovskaya stunning performance at Bargemusic.
Hourglass is a musical reflection on the passage of time and the delicacy and variable nature of its passing – as in the shifting phases of sand in a turning hourglass. – RW
Dark Dreams – for piano
Released 2008: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, Max Lifchitz, piano, North/South Recordings
Audio features a concert recording by pianist, Desiree Bonitz at the 2016 Missouri State University Composition Festival
Dark Dreams was inspired by a painting by Jared FitzGerald. The germinating idea for the piece relates to the image of an angel in the moonlight wrestling with a shadowy figure. Dark Dreams extends the metaphor to the struggles with emotional demons confronted in life. – RW

Painting by Jared FitzGerald
Conversation Before the Rain
Released 2010: If Only Knowing, CDBaby
This was one of my first compositions… before I knew how to notate music, and so was performed from memory and recorded in an early concert at Charlemagne Palestine’s loft.
The music takes me emotionally to the feeling of an intimate moment shared within sheltered space, looking out – perhaps to the turbulent sky before an approaching storm. – RW
* Amazon Music * Apple Music *
Always Almost
An expression of the profound realization that some of life’s deepest yearnings may remain unfulfilled, seemingly just out of reach – just ‘always almost.’ Yet from this sadness music arose. – RW
This video features a beautiful performance by Max Lifchitz in his “Women of Note” concert at the National Opera Center in New York City, funded in part by a New York Women Composers Seed Money Grant.
Available on: Moods: Piano Music by American Women Composers, North/South Recordings
On Curious Reflection
(SoundCloud audio features concert performance by Nathan Shew, marimba, and Topher Ruggerio, piano, at the 2014 SCI National Conference.)
Program note: A curious reflection on the emotional immediacy of a moment, and the more distanced self-observation in the moment. – RW
Purchase options include versions for marimba & piano, and vibe and piano.
(Video features the vibe/piano version premiere by percussionist Chris Graham and pianist Andrea Lodge at Greenwich House Music School, NYC)
Moonlit Mists
An impressionistic duet for marimba and piano.
(Audio is a midi realization.)
Jilted Tango – string and piano
Jilted Tango is included on Moonkyung Lee’s Navona Records album, PARTS TO PLAY.
Program Note: The give and take, push and pull in a dance of love. -RW
Amazon *AppleMusic * Spotify
Video features a performance of a double bass/piano version of “Jilted Tango” performed by bassist Joel Braun with pianist Alexandre Maynegre-Torra, October 25, 2021 at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas/Austin.
A Turn in Return
A quietly tender piece that has stayed close to my heart. – RW
(audio is a midi realization)