The Pulse Suite
49 Microludes for Toy Pianos
The Pulse Suite – 49 Microludes for Toy Pianos (2025) is the result of The Toy Piano Sanctuary's first composition competition. Composers from six countries submitted 74 microludes, from which 49 were selected as an initial homage to the victims of the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting that occurred in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016.​
​​​​​
​Janet Oates is the First Prize winner of the competition, with the largest number of microludes selected for the Suite. She is a performer, composer, teacher, and director based in London, England. She embraced the opportunity to write for toy pianos for the first time as a way to explore a new medium and connect with what she described as a meaningful project that inspired and educated her.
For this project, she composed pieces for up to ten toy pianos, including canons, laments, conceptual works, and pieces for prepared toy piano. More about her work can be found at www.janetoates.co.uk.
​​
José Azevedo Souza is the Second Prize winner, with several of his pieces selected for The Pulse Suite. He is a composer and piano teacher from Portugal, and has previously written for solo toy piano as well as for flute and toy piano.
He described the competition as “a musical challenge and a chance to contribute towards a humane initiative.”
He is particularly drawn to the multicultural aspects of music, often borrowing folk melodies from various cultures and creating works that merge Eastern and Western traditions. Examples include his vignette for hichiriki and piano, por la paz en el mundo for solo oboe—which blends Israeli and Palestinian tunes—and his Iberian Fantasy for wind ensemble.
​
The prize for Best Microlude was awarded to The Random Sequence by composer Mauro Agagliate. An Italian composer, teacher, and accordionist, Mauro’s toy piano writing includes the prize-winning suite I Saw Cage Out of the Cage! (2012) for ten toy pianos; xen Ctro, premiered by toy pianist Antonietta Loffredo; and Fibonaccident, which explores mathematical sequences through a choreographed performance using colored wooden sticks. His most recent work is 88 Microludes for toy piano and piano—each piece linked to a piano key and a celestial constellation.
​
.jpg)
Janet Oates
Mauro Agagliate
José Azevedo Souza
In reflecting on the competition, Mauro has shared:
​​
“The human rights theme of this competition struck me immediately—both for its emotional depth and the ethical weight it carries. I was deeply moved by the idea of remembering the 49 victims of the Orlando massacre through a collective musical gesture. It felt like a rare and important opportunity to write music that could preserve memory, evoke empathy, and resist silence.
I also appreciated the format of the microludes—compact, focused, and open to experimentation—which allowed each composer to contribute a small but meaningful voice. The sense of community, the clarity of the call, and the courage to tackle such a sensitive topic made this competition feel urgent, necessary, and artistically fertile.”
​​
The suite also includes microludes by composers Daniel Rofer, Sergio Leal, Fabiana Louro, Morris Wolf, and Fabio Janhan.
​
The 49 selected microludes are currently being recorded by professor Daniel Inamorato. He will premiere the Suite at Williamsburg Pride, University of William & Mary and at the Festival for Creative Pianists in Vermont.
​
This project will be performed annually as part of Pride Month, and many future iterations of the Suite are envisioned. Although the competition has concluded, the project will remain open indefinitely to anyone wishing to submit microludes and help amplify our collective voice in telling these life stories.