Skip to content
Cello Repertoire Initiative

TAROT: A Guide to Queering Human Connection

by TJ Cole

Instrumentation
Cello, Electronics
Composed
2025
Duration
30'
Publisher
Self Published
More by this composer

Purchase or download

About this piece

A thirty-minute, ten-movement work for live cello and pre-recorded audio written for cellist Gabriel Cabezas and premiered by him on 19 October 2025 in Louisville Public Media's New Lens series at the 21c Museum Hotel. The audio weaves in spoken stories from queer, transgender and polyamorous people in Louisville, poetry and collage-like electronic effects, with each movement keyed to a tarot card as a way of 'queering' human connection. Supported by a 2024 New Music USA Creator Fund award.

Technical overview

Live cello synchronised with a fixed audio track (and optional video collage); demands are those of an album-length concert work for a professional player.

Level rubric

Advanced

Left Hand

  • Unrestricted fingerboard operation.
  • Effortless high‑register passages with thumb position.
  • Execute large leaps, rapid shifts & fast runs with precise intonation.
  • Render double stops with clarity and even vibrato.
  • Crisp, stylistically appropriate ornamentation (trills, turns, mordents).
  • Instinctive micro‑adjustments in intonation for expressiveness.
  • False harmonics in low positions

Right Hand

  • Complete command of all bow strokes at any tempo/dynamic.
  • Comfortable execution of virtuoso passages (sautillé, intricate ricochet).
  • Tone projection from whisper‑quiet to fortissimo.
  • Integrate advanced bow patterns with expressive phrasing.
  • Demonstrate technical precision with a broad dynamic range.

Rhythm & Musicality

  • Interpret large‑scale structures with nuanced pacing and rhythmic freedom.
  • Highly refined phrasing with subtle note grouping & expressive rubato.
  • Convey emotional depth and stylistic authenticity.
  • Incorporate personal interpretive choices while meeting stylistic demands.

Levels are approximate guides, not strict requirements.

Music

Recently AddedThe newest additions

About

Our MissionResource CatalogContributeContact Us