ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION AND ARRANGING
At a young age I can remember always being intrigued by the colors and timbre of the different instruments. Now, as a young professional, my first major opportunities involve me exploring those sounds. From re-orchestrating operas for professional theaters to composing original works for large ensembles, my musical career is taking me across the full orchestra.
CHAMBER AND LARGE ENSEMBLES
Chamber music is my pride and joy. Getting to explore a unique timbre allows me to focus my excitement into creating music for whatever is needed. Not only is chamber music enjoyable to write for, it also opens up the door to write exclusively for specific players. Since I have spent time exploring chamber works, I have allowed myself to fine tune my ability to audiate the colors of large ensembles.
SOLO PIANO
AND MORE
I began piano lessons at the age of five and, due to this, I read the piano as I read a book. This is why piano has become the solo instrument of my choice. While I do write for other solo instruments, I am able to intimately connect to the instrument. This allows me to write a wide range of styles intuitively and inventively.
IDIOMATIC WORKS
As a young, aspiring composer, my current quest is to find my voice in my writings. While my style is ever evolving, I am nevertheless creating a style. Below are descriptions of what I would consider to be some, but not all, of my most idiomatic works.
For Wind Ensemble and Electronics
Written as partial fulfillment of my Masters Degree, Forgotten Names is a tour-de-force for the concert band. The work is written both with and without the use of electronics. The music exploration of memories being lost to the passing of time and it is approx. 15" long. No live recording currently exists, but I am hoping to have one in due time.
For Two Clarinets
and Piano
Written in 2018 for a chamber group I had at SIU, this piece uses atonal counterpoint to tell the story of two voices falling out of harmony and their failed attempts to reconnect.
Solo Piano
One of my first solo piano works, this piece combines 12-tone writing with a Bartok inspired take on tonality.
PROJECTS
Take a look at what is on my current musical agenda. Theses projects show what work I am currently tackling as well as larger compositional projects. These can also be used to understand more of what I am doing as a composer, arranger, pianist and teacher.
Just Grease
A New Musical
Currently in its genesis of creation, Just Grease is my newest musical collaboration. Written by myself and Ben Woodard, this story tells the tale of yet another High School production of Grease and the school's eccentric director who is obsessed with the bizarre casting decisions in the classic movie.
L'enfant et les Sortilèges
Perfect Execution
I have recently completed a job where I was hired by the L.A, based theatre company, Pacific Opera Project, to re-orchestrate Ravel's one act opera L'enfant et les Sortilèges. My job was to turn Ravel's highly orchestrated opera into an arrangement more suitable for the smaller POP orchestra. While orchestration is nothing new to me, this large assignment it allowed me to grow considerably as a professional arranger.
Book for the Young
A Gathering of Styles
Last summer I began on a project to compose a book of original, intermediate level piano pieces. The goal of this book was to not only create a personal piano anthology, but also to synthesize many different compositional styles into one collection of pieces. This was inspired by me noticing a lack of 20th and 21st century styles in pedagogical repertoire. However, my sites have changed since, and now I'm focusing on just writing a collection of simpler works, rather than catering them to young players