Composer Merryjest is proud to present Small Wonders & Secret Sorrows, a debut album collecting fifteen original works of narrative orchestral and vocal music written over the course of 2025.
Drawing on Celtic modality, theatrical neoclassicism, folklore, classic literature, and furry-inspired worlds, the album presents a series of miniature fairy tales both whimsical and grief-stricken. Small Wonders & Secret Sorrows is composed as a cycle of stand-alone tone-poems, chamber ensembles, arias, and choral pieces. The album flows effortlessly among an array of configurations: solo guitar, piano, string orchestra, chamber winds, solo violin, cello and piano, male choir, and operatic tenor voice in a resulting kaleidoscope of colors and characters.
The album opens with "The Last Wish," the thematic introduction to an upcoming project centered around anthropomorphic characters and the unsettling bargains of Fairy Godmothers. From there, the listener enters into the Garden of Elpis in "In The Garden Of Hope," a solo guitar passacaglia accompanying the wisdom of a gentle mentor named Adam.
In "The Glimmering Court," an Elizabethan-inflected theme and variations describes the elusive court of the Seelie fae; In "In Sherwood" Merryjest pays its respects to the furry fandom's particular fondness for Robin Hood by setting Alfred Noyes' nostalgic poem to music (by permission of the Society of Authors, estate holders for Noyes.)
Several tracks bear witness to Merryjest's collaboration with Second Life's Fantasy Faire, among them "The Dreamcaster's Cauldron," connected to the Faire's yearly fight against cancer, known within the community as The Unweaver. Literary, furry, and folkloric figures appear throughout the album: the tragic Slavic water spirit of "The Rusalka" speaks in the plangent notes of a cello, the Queen of Hearts and Cheshire Cat as dueling forces in "And The Cheshire Grinned," and the darkly serious retelling of Carroll's "Jabberwocky" appears embodied as an eerie aria for tenor and chamber orchestra. Real-life tributes also define the album's emotional core, with "Por La Rivera," "The Fox And The Rose," and "The Missing All" honoring formative figures, beloved family taken by The Unweaver, and cherished friends from the furry fandom lost too soon.
The album has special poignancy now, in the wake of the sudden death of Karl Meyer (known as Crim Mip/Crim Ferret in the Furry Fandom), whose voice is heard as the narrator in "Welcome To Wonderland," the overture to the musical "Wonders" which Merryjest performed at Fantasy Faire 2025, and for which Meyer was the narrator. The final work, "The Missing All," sets an Emily Dickinson poem about loss, composed two days after Meyer's passing- giving the album its emotional finality.
Small Wonders & Secret Sorrows introduces Merryjest as a composer deeply steeped in the mythic and storybook roots of the fandom. His influences run the gamut from folklore scholarship and classical poetry to operatic tradition, fantasy gaming, and the narrative traditions born of fantasy and furry communities.
1. Once Upon A Time
2.The Last Wish
3. In The Garden Of Hope
4. The Glimmering Court
5. In Sherwood
6. The Dreamcaster’s Cauldron
7. A Folly
8. The Rusalka
9. And The Cheshire Grinned
10. Welcome To Wonderland
11. Por La Rivera
12. The Fox And The Rose
13. Jabberwocky
14. The Missing All
15. And All Will Be Well
Originally from Latin America, Merryjest is a narrative-driven classically trained composer and operatic tenor, for whom music is the vehicle of storytelling. His themes draw on fairy tales, character drama, lost worlds, and emotional myth-making. His voice as a composer is tinged with Celtic color, theatrical neoclassicism, folklore, and mythic-yet-intimate world-buildings.
As a vocalist, he is a student of the critically acclaimed soprano Martile Rowland, herself a student of the great pedagogue Beverly Peck Johnson, whose students included Renée Fleming, Renata Tebaldi, Anna Moffo, Anthony Dean Griffey, and many others. This lineage informs his musical phrasing, dramatic instincts, and sensitivity to text, melodic line, and character, which comes across even in works without words.
Small Wonders & Secret Sorrows is his first musical anthology, bringing a selection from a year of compositions into one single storybook of wonders and griefs. It is one of three albums Merryjest composed in 2025, and the first that shall be released.
Small Wonders & Secret Sorrows will be available on Bandcamp and major streaming platforms on January 9th, 2026. Physical CDs will be available for ordering on that same day.
For listening links, interview or review requests, please contact Merryjest.