brief mid-winter update

I just finished two and a half incredible weeks at the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Workshop, facilitated by Nautilus Music-Theater. I cannot recommend this program enough for creators of new music-theater of any sort (opera, musicals, alternative music-theater, or anything in-between). Don't expect to sleep much, though.

Now on to a new piece for loadbang, for ICEBERG New Music's inaugural season. I'm setting the Heart Sutra, a profound Buddhist text. And I'm doing it in Sanskrit, which is proving to be quite the challenge - though a welcome one!

Next month, it's off to Finland for a month in the snowy woods at the Arteles Center. Looking forward to daily saunas and maybe even the Northern Lights.

Finally: as the world we thought we knew falls to pieces around us, we have to keep making art. We can still celebrate what is beautiful and true about humanity, and it will nourish us for the fight. Stay strong - I'll be right there with you.

An antifascist Christmas

I've been laying low for the past few weeks, musically speaking. Politically speaking, not so much. Like many others, I've been shocked by the country's rapid descent into authoritarianism, and I see it as part of the artist's job to speak out against injustice. And like many others, I've been donating, calling elected officials, and spending far too much time on social media. I am always looking for ways to be more useful, so please be in touch if you're interested in what I can offer. (Besides music, I have a bachelor's in international relations and a strong background in the politics of the Middle East.)

Now to the fun stuff:

Dec. 15: the Blueshift Ensemble will be performing my trio Devotion, for flute, cello, and piano, in Memphis, TN. More info here. 

March 2017: I'll be in residence at Arteles in Finland! It's gonna be really cold. I'm hoping to see reindeer and the Northern Lights and Nokia and Sibelius and saunas and all the Finnish stereotypes.

May 10, 2017: My composers' collective, ICEBERG New Music, presents killer NYC new-music ensemble loadbang at the DiMenna Center in Manhattan. They'll be premiering a new piece of mine, along with four others, and at least one winner of our call for scores. (Submit to our call for scores! It's cheap and quick.)

June 2017: NY-based classical / jazz / hip-hop ensemble ShoutHouse will give the NYC premiere of Dharmakaya, which won their call for scores! You can hear a recording of the piece, performed by Blueshift Ensemble, here.

Also in June 2017, I will be in residence for two weeks at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center For The Arts, in Nebraska. Cue Bright Eyes and Rilo Kiley. Yes, I know that was over ten years ago. No, I don't care.

And there's much more in the works, as always. Keep in touch!

August heat

hello! it's August, and it's hot and humid in NYC.

a brief update: the Sō Percussion Summer Institute was incredible, and their public reading of my piece True Alarm was truly inspired. recording and video coming soon!

i'm working on a pop record. i'm writing solo piano pieces for my upcoming book of preludes. i'm writing an opera. i'm writing two more movements to go with Dharmakaya, premiered by the Blueshift Ensemble in June - the full piece will be called Buddha Body.

that's all for now.

lots of springtime events

a lot going on in the next few months! a performance of Devotion at Ithaca College, the premiere of a new piano piece from my in-development piano book at Hofstra on Long Island, a collaboration with the Eglevsky Ballet, and a residency at Hambidge in Georgia in late May.

and my first opera! entitled Bark!, or The Gone Trees, And Whatever Else With Them, it is a site-specific piece set in Fort Greene Park (Fort Greene Bark? i crack myself up), featuring three tremendous singers making crazy dog noises. it's only ten minutes long, and it's free! libretto is by Lane Dombois, and the production is a collaboration between American Opera Projects and the NYU Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program (my alma mater).

more details on the events page.