In second grade, he named his new dog after the ancient mythical Irish warrior Cú Chulainn. In third grade, he locked onto the Tolkien canon. In ninth grade, he began a six-year project writing a musical inspired by a 12th-century French poem. 

By his own account, senior Toussaint Santicola Jones admits he was “the extremely weird kid” in his public school in Albany, N.Y., with few friends.

But at Princeton, the quirks that used to induce eye rolls became gifts as he carved a remarkable path as a composer.

A music major with an interest in medieval studies, Santicola Jones parlayed his love of fantasy, Norse and Celtic mythology, language and medieval history into a prolific cascade of orchestral compositions and chamber works with musical influences ranging from prog rock and Harry Potter audiobooks to Stravinsky and György Ligeti. 

His work has been commissioned by the Albany Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society of New York, among others. His senior thesis, an 18-minute concerto for tuba and orchestra, was performed on May 2 by Princeton Sinfonia in Richardson Auditorium. 

Concertgoers who attended that night might want to hold on to their programs. “Toussaint is one of the most talented composition undergraduate students we have had in recent decades,” said Daniel Trueman, professor of music and Santicola Jones’ junior paper adviser. “He is a remarkable talent, and an absolutely joyous, irrepressible presence.”

Excerpt of “That Which I Cannot See,” a concerto for tuba and orchestra

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Medieval history, contemporary art and the “rough edges of Rush”

A history class his first semester at Princeton deepened his interest in medieval history — which in turn shaped the direction of many of the works he composed at the University. 

Looking through the course registrar, he recognized “The Song of Roland” — the 4,000-line epic poem that was the basis of the musical he’d written — on the reading list for “Civilization of the High Middle Ages,” taught by historian William Chester Jordan, Princeton’s Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus, and director of the Program in Medieval Studies.

“Professor Jordan’s class never left me,” Santicola Jones said. After turning in his final paper, he was inspired to write a chamber orchestra piece about falsified claims of human sacrifice at the Temple at Uppsala in Sweden. “Blót” (Old Norse for “blood sacrifice”) was performed by Princeton Camerata in spring of his first year.

His next work arose from a trip down a rabbit hole into Irish mythology, where he stumbled on British painter Leonora Carrington’s 1996 “Red Horses of the Sidhe” — which happens to be in the Princeton University Art Museum’s collections.

That painting “opened an artistic can of worms,” Santicola Jones said. “As soon as I saw it, I knew that I needed to write an orchestra piece about it. It looks visually the way that I hear music in my head.”

Ruth Ochs, conductor of Princeton Sinfonia, arranged for Santicola Jones to see the original painting in a viewing room the art museum set up during the construction of the new museum. In May 2023, Sinfonia performed his work “Naked, Upon the Road to Tara,” and a year later his next work, “The Broken Tree,” inspired by a Carrington lithograph. 

His junior paper, a six-movement harp trio, was based on six Carrington works in the art museum’s collections.

His senior thesis tuba concerto drew from three black-and-white photographs in the museum collection from Michael Kenna’s 1990s “Rouge” series, which shows the faded industrial might of the Ford Motor Co. River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan. The concerto’s three movements reflect themes from the three images, which Santicola Jones describes as “the skeletons and husks of human industry.”

Attentive listeners will hear musical influences from the eclectic mix of prog rock, contemporary orchestral works and audiobooks of fantasy novels that was in heavy rotation on Santicola Jones’ headphone playlist his senior year: Rush's “A Farewell to Kings,” Genesis’ “Nursery Cryme” and “Foxtrot,” Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” György Ligeti’s violin concerto, Christopher Theofanidis’ violin concerto, “Harry Potter” Books 3 and 4, and “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss. 

“I was loving the rough edges of Rush,” Santicola Jones said.

Building confidence as a composer

“Toussaint is an extremely talented and artistically ambitious composer,” said his thesis adviser, Steve Mackey, a Grammy Award-winning composer and the William Shubael Conant Professor of Music.

“He thinks big and his music has big gestures, vivid characters and strong contrasts,” Mackey said. “His senior thesis is a good example of that.”

Santicola Jones said Mackey helped him lean into his instincts: “If you have an idea that you think is a bit risky, he would say double it, triple it.”

Photo by

Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications

Over the course of four years at Princeton, Santicola Jones has written three works for full orchestra, five for chamber orchestra and 10 for smaller chamber ensembles, all of which were given full public performances on campus or by outside music ensembles — a staggering accomplishment.

For “That Which I Cannot See” alone, he orchestrated 26 instrument parts plus 16 different instruments for the percussion section. The score for the orchestral arrangement is 62 pages long. The first draft for most of his compositions begins with improvisations on “any piano that is closest in the moment,” he said. That could be the baby grand in Rocky Common Room or a classroom piano in Woolworth, with his phone set on record mode.

He’ll then hole up at Rojo’s coffee shop with his headphones on and an espresso tonic nearby, and start arranging the orchestrations on his laptop. The coffee shop hustle and bustle around him is critical to his process. “I like being around other people’s real lives while I’m trying to make music that’s reflective of real life.”

His orchestration skills have been honed by two of the composers he admires most: Christopher Theofanidis and Mackey. In 2022, Santicola Jones participated in an orchestration workshop taught by Theofanidis as part of the Albany Symphony's American Music Festival. He was able to show Theofanidis his work “Blót” and the composer told him, "You have a superpower for a beautiful tune.”

Mackey helped him lean into his instincts. “If you have an idea that you think is a bit risky, he would say double it, triple it,” said Santicola Jones. “Steve is the best teacher I've ever had. He's as brilliant an educator as he is a great composer.”

Santicola Jones said he also feels indebted to Sinfonia’s conductor Ochs, who enabled him to compose three pieces for the ensemble. “The amount of time I’ve gotten to work with an orchestra at Princeton, that does not happen at elsewhere as an undergrad, period, and it doesn't happen without someone like Ruth,” he said.

Full circle with Cú Chulainn

On a solo research trip to Ireland, Sweden, Norway and England last summer, “the first travel I’ve ever been able to afford, thanks to Princeton funding,” Santicola Jones visited places he’d composed music about — the Temple of Uppsala, the Hill of Tara, Viking burial sites.

In County Louth, Ireland, Santicola Jones caught his first glimpse of Cú Chulainn’s Stone — a 10-foot monument dating from the Bronze Age that angrily pierces the sky. “I almost turned around because it was so terrifying,” he said. But he also experienced “this distinct feeling, like a fire in my chest, when I know that I'm going to compose something good.”

His senior thesis tuba concerto was also written in part to showcase a Princeton friend and fellow musician, Wesley Sanders of the Class of 2026, who plays tuba and low brass.

“Wesley loves enormous sounds like I do,” Santicola Jones said. “He has this extreme dexterity that should not be possible on this weird low instrument, the tuba.”

In revision after revision — “I would hazard a guess at 20 different drafts” — Santicola Jones worked to crack the particular code of balancing a concerto, “where one person must combat the bombast of a full orchestra.” He and Sanders workshopped several sections.

Speaking two days before the performance of “That Which I Cannot See,” the feeling of knowing this was the last piece he would write at Princeton tugged at him, recalling how each work was formed from a relationship with its performers, and a love of their musicianship. “That Which I Cannot See” is also the ultimate expression of that, he said.

“It’s like, ‘Wesley, here’s something I think you would like to play,’” Santicola Jones said. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing something.”

Over the course of four years at Princeton, Santicola Jones has written three works for full orchestra, five for chamber orchestra and 10 for smaller chamber ensembles, all of which were given full public performances on campus or by outside music ensembles — a staggering accomplishment. “The amount of time I’ve gotten to work with an orchestra at Princeton, that does not happen at elsewhere as an undergrad, period," he said.

Photo by

Matthew Raspanti, Office of Communications