Greetings: a quick post to let you know that I’ve added some recordings of some recent pieces to my pages up here. The Inscape Chamber Orchestra gave a solid premiere of Get Up in May, and you can here the second movement Haze here. The Catholic University Symphony, under the direction of Simeone Tartaglione, premiered …of such light last April, and I have some clips from the performance here.
I am very excited to present my newest collaboration, The Initiation, with sculptor Dawn Whitmore. Dawn commissioned me to make a piece for four singers that is intended to be performed with an amazing wooden sculpture of ladders that she’s been making. We are putting together a free outdoor performance on November 18th at the Labyrinth at the Georgetown Waterfront Park in DC. The music should start as the sun goes down, ca. 4:45. We’re inviting people to come check out the sculpture starting at 4:00pm. Below is a preview video Dawn made of the sculpture with a bit of my music, and here’s a link to read more details at Dawn’s site. I’m really excited to be doing something site-specific and outdoors in my city, and, I couldn’t be happier with the merry band of singers we’ve gathered for the event: Rachel Evangeline Barham, Allison Clendaniel, Shauna Kreidler Michels, and Deborah Sternberg are killing it. Hope to see you there! If you miss it, we are planning more performances for the spring (stay tuned).
The amazing violist Wendy Richman is heading into the recording studio later this spring to make her first solo album. I’m honored that she’s including Veiled, a new (more compact) version of Highway Music, a piece I wrote for her a few years ago, alongside awesome music by Jason Eckhardt, Ken Ueno, Christian Carey, David Smooke, Lou Bunk, Everette Minchew, Arlene Sierra, and Jose-Luis Hurtado. All of the pieces on this record feature Wendy’s unique skill in playing viola and singing. Wendy’s hosting a fundraising campaign over at indiegogo for the duration of this next month to cover all costs of recording and production. Please check it out and consider pitching in if you can!
I’m very happy to share the premiere performance by Emily Green of some new piano music from this past December. I became infatuated with Domenico Scarlatti’s huge corpus of Sonatas a few years ago, and these two pieces are a tribute of sorts to the master. Please click here to take a listen and read more. Emily did an amazing job with this music at the premiere, and we’re hoping to make a studio recording this summer.
One of my projects this past year was a new solo cello piece for Dan Shomper. Vox Animarum is the result, and you can listen to it below.
More info on Vox Animarum here.
Colin Hill and the percussion ensemble at Tennessee Tech University gave the premiere of my new percussion quartet Aqua Vitae last month. I just got a recording of the piece from them: take a listen below:
More info on Aqua Vitae here.
I am so happy to announce that I’ve been awarded a 2016 Strauss Artist Grant from the Arts Council of Fairfax County. Thank you Arts Council for your support! This grant will allow me to pursue several interesting projects over the coming year, helping me to continue and grow as an artist.
Two new pieces were premiered this spring: back in March, cellist Dan Shomper gave the premiere of Vox Animarum, and in April, Colin Hill and the percussion ensemble at Tennessee Tech University premiered Aqua Vitae, for percussion quartet.
Both of these pieces were written over my sabbatical last fall, and in each work I’m trying something entirely new to my compositional vocabulary: in the cello piece, I worked with Dan on bow pressure techniques that widen the timbral spectrum to include quite a bit of noise in the cello’s tone. In the percussion quartet, I decided to work with a collection of junk instruments (bits of metal and wood) alongside traditional percussion instruments like bass drums, toms, marimbas, and vibraphone. Aqua Vitae, as you might guess from the title, was written as an homage to the centuries-old whiskey making process. You can read more about both pieces via these links: Vox Animarum, for solo cello, Aqua Vitae, for percussion quartet.
Spektral Quartet asked some of their recent collaborators for reading recommendations! Check it out: I was happy to be included.
I’m very excited that Wendy Richman will be reviving Highway Music this winter, in a newly revised version that will have its premiere on the New Music Gathering in Baltimore this January. This piece, for a singing violist + electronics, was commissioned by Strathmore Music Center and premiered by Wendy there in 2011. Wendy will be pairing my piece with Jason Eckardt’s to be held… for a short set on the Intrumental+ segment of the program.
I’ve got a few projects in the works that are slowly taking shape over the next few weeks: a set of Scarlatti-inspired piano pieces, and some new percussion music. Details to be announced shortly.
New Morse Code premiered Transit last spring down here in Washington, DC. Here’s a link to a really nice video from them shredding in the beautiful Washington College concert hall.
And, last but certainly not least, I’m now a tenured professor at CUA, and after seven years of teaching I’m on my first sabbatical this semester. Plans for the fall away include writing, more writing, and going on runs with Lev (because he’s finally big enough for a jogging stroller!).
