Composer
I am an avid reader of comic books and one of my all-time favorite series is Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. One of the main characters in the series is The Drummer, a man who can control the flow of energy and information with drumsticks. By drumming on computers, televisions, or electrical panels …
I composed these two pieces for LaToya Lain and pianist Casey Robards. These texts about love made such an impact on me that I just had to share them with as many people as possible. Download the score: Sufi Songs
This piece is part of a collaborative music/dance project which I did with dancer/choreographer Heather Trommer-Beardslee. Heather interviewed three vets who had recently transitioned from military careers to being students at CMU. These compelling stories became the motivation for our piece. Heather and I worked independently on choreography and music and only lined up the …
Composed for the Central Michigan University New Music Ensemble, both movements are typical of my current compositional output. Harmonies are based on the repetition of a simple interval pattern and long lyrical melodies weave their way through these chaconnes. The rhythms and colors are rather plain, unadorned, and far from ornate. The directness and simplicity …
I was waking up one morning and the title for this piece was stuck in my head. I wasn’t sure why, I didn’t necessarily know what it sounded like, but I knew it was a good title. When Andrew Allen asked me to write a piece for him, I threw this title at him and …
Yikes. I can’t believe I haven’t had a news update in so long. I guess through all my Twitter stuff (and occasional FB use) I just forget to put official whatsits here on the ol’ home page. So what has been up? Well… Wrote a few new pieces All the Morning Silences for soprano sax, …
This piece is the second in a series of collaborations with Bruce Bonnell for natural horn and live electronics (the whole project has been dubbed Supernatural). To contrast with the hectic and spastic counterpart movement Silhouettes, Receding, this movement is a single melody set against a gradually evolving drone. The title is taken from the …
Composed for Katherine Crawford and given its premiere performance at Electronic Music Midwest in 2013. The poetry is by Robert Fanning and is included in the score. Special thanks to the Freesound.org users ethang, laureci, ephemeral-rift, and sandyrb for their sonic contributions and to Laura Patterson whose live performance of my piece All My Dreams are Silent …
Thanks to Kevin Keith for sharing his recording of Knott’s for speaking percussionist with me. It is up on Soundcloud and also embedded in the details on the piece.
I have a file full of potential titles and one summer this file grew quite a bit as I re-read William Gibson’s classic Neuromancer. When Tammy Evans Yonce asked for a piece for glissando flute (flute with a glissando head joint) and electronics I proposed the title “Dreams Grow Like Slow Ice,” which I’m pretty …