I love the viola. Though I studied the violin all through my schooling, I ended up playing quite a lot of viola after I graduated from my Master's degree. The viola is an amazing instrument with a timbre and expressive power unique within the string family. Typically relegated to inner voice parts in chamber and orchestral music, the viola rarely gets its time to shine. So I wrote Little Monster. 

The title has a dual significance. For one, Little Monster is a high-energy, rhythmically charged, virtuoso piece. It simply is a little monster. For example, you might hear a violist talking about my piece say something like “Man, Matthias’ piece sure is a little monster.” 

But it also refers to the expressive idea at the core of the piece — it’s about the journey we undertake when we endeavor to change or learn something new about ourselves. The “Little Monster” is the voice inside our heads that resists the new, that puts up a fight, that says something negative. Each time feels like a struggle, but we always emerge on the other side better for having tried.