Composer
Choreographer Andrea Purrenhage and I were talking about possible projects and over the course of the discussion we realized that we were both inspired by the poem: “What the Voyeur Wants” by CMU faculty poet Jeffrey Bean. The poet’s reading of his work forms the backbone of the piece. The choreography for solo dancer was …
Based on Plato’s Cave Allegory, this work was conceived and choreographed by Andrea Purrenhage. This video is from the dress rehearsal of the Central Michigan University Dance Company in April 2017.
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 …
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 …
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 …
I have this collection of poetry from Pitt Press that I’ve been reading and reading since about 1992. A few poems by Ted Kooser caught my mind and I filed them away for a future text setting. When Katherine Crawford asked me to write a piece for her and electronics, I decided to finally act …
This piece is the first in a series of collaborations with Bruce Bonnell for natural horn and live electronics (the whole project has been dubbed Supernatural). Originally performed under the title Golfballs the Size of Hail, the title Silhouettes, Receding seems to be a better fit for the mood and tone of the piece. Hectic, …
This piece grew from a shorter work for ?ute and cello composed in the summer of 2009 and titled Oblique Variations. When writing the original piece, I drew my inspiration from the deck of “Oblique Strategies” created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. When asked to extend the work, and add an electronic component, I …
This piece started with the scale made to highlight some of the quirky pitch omissions in the hammer dulcimer. After grooving on that scale pattern for a while, the piece breaks it down to reveal a more gentle harmonic underpinning. A long, slow marimba melody emerges with a few mbira punctuations. Finally, the scale erupts …