the process of composing has informed practically everything I do in music,..It is the lens through which I approach all other music.
Composing is something I’ve been doing ever since we had a Tandy 8000 EX (or something like that; my brain doesn’t remember numbers) and, at age 9 or so, I would write these crazy unplayable compositions in the computer that sounded cool—or probably like amphetamined-up Mendelssohn, if I’m being honest. I truly wish I had those old floppy disks today, not that anything could read them.
Anyway, the process of composing—of coming at tones from the (seeming) inside out, writing down only what I “hear” internally (whatever that actually is, and wherever it actually happens)—has informed practically everything I do in music, and given me a tangible, deeply-felt understanding of the holarchy of materials and structures in any given work. It is the lens through which I approach all “other”* music.
Music runs through my head all the time; it's all I can do to still the flow. When I compose, it seems as if I just dip into that stream and write it down to the best of my ability, only later being saddled with the task of naming the piece. Sometimes the title comes quickly; sometimes it takes quite a while. I just listen to the music internally, and then listen to what words/ideas/images come up, and at some point something intuitively strikes me as "right".
Usually there isn't any extra degree of association or "program"; it's just tones and their relationship to one-another through time. This is my process as best I can put it.
*in quotes because, in the moment of perceiving/observing “my” internal music, it is as objective as when I am looking at (and, therefore, hearing internally) anyone else’s.
Composer
Compositions & Arrangements
Compositions
Solo piano
One True Water’s Heart* (2000)
Transformations* (2000)
1. Allegretto
2. Vivace
3. Adagio
4. Lento; presto
Fairy Tale* (2001)
On the Beach of True Water* (2003)
Fantasy and Fugue on Themes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2008)
Ballade/Sonata (2017) (two movements)
Flute and piano
Legend (2001)
Continuum* (2003)
Piccolo and piano
Enchantments (2006)
1. Rivers
2. Far-Away Spaces
3. Summon the Fire
Clarinet and piano
Labyrinth* (2001)
Solo cello
Voyage* (2003)
Violin and piano
Let Beauty Awake (2003)
Solo marimba
Fractions of Light (2010)
1. Sounding
2. An Open Field Above the Stars
3. Ancient Music
Violin, cello, and piano
Piano trio (2006) (three movements)
*piece still in manuscript form, i.e. not yet put into Sibelius or any other notation software.
Baritone and piano
Claritas (Song Cycle) (2015-16)
1. Bird-Understander (Craig Arnold)
2. Wings of a God (Denise Levertov)
3. The Red Wheelbarrow (William Carlos Williams)
4. Claritas (Denise Levertov)
Mezzo-soprano and piano
Prologue (Clive Barker) (2007)
The Day is Words and Rage (Clive Barker) (2010)
Vocalise (2012)
Solo guitar
Crystal Memory (2011)
Saxophone and piano
The Lake at Dreamer Circle (2008)
Piano four-hands
Hymn to the Outshining Brightness (2004)*
Arrangements
Solo piano
Mendelssohn violin concerto, last movement*
Mendelssohn piano trio in C minor, first movement*
Dvorak piano quintet, “Furiant” movement*
Three songs by Samuel Barber*
1. The Daisies
2. St. Ita’s Vision
3. Nocturne
Three songs by Francis Poulenc*
1. C
2. Il vole
3. Priez pour paix
Johannes Brahms “Unbewegte laue Luft” (song)
Flute and piano
Grieg piano sonata, op. 7, second movement*
Saxophone and piano
Chopin impromptus nos. 1, 2, and 3
Piano trio (violin, cello, piano)
Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 (complete)