Altered Gates is a percussion quintet for unpitched instruments. The piece revolves around a dense array of drums including concert and marching toms, bongos, congas, a mounted kick drum, and snare. Additionally, graduated sets of woodblocks, cowbells, and metallic colors are placed throughout. Players, facing inward, command their own primary real estate while also reaching into that of their neighboring counterparts. With nuanced cooperation, ten hands interweave to create multiple rhythmic layers, split melodies, and an energetic, groove-based current of perpetual motion.

Altered Gates was written in 2018 for the Berkner High School percussion ensemble from Richardson, Texas, under the direction of Mike Garcia for their PASIC showcase concert as a winner of the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition.