Toccoa River Blues is my most recent work, which is my first attempt at multimedia composition. After taking a trip to the north Georgia mountains, intending to work on something completely different, I was overwhelmed by the soundscape and landscape I found myself in. I couldn't help but stop working on the other piece, and start something new. The empty spaces in the video are accompanied by disembodied sound materials gathered from other places, creating the impression of auditory memories -- perhaps of things that once happened in these now abandoned spaces.

Dysthymia is a fixed media work intended to be diffused into a multichannel loudspeaker system. The title is a term used to describe a chronic type of depression, "in which a person's moods are regularly low". There is no known cause of the disorder, but it tends to run in families and affects up to 5% of the population. The piece is intended to sonify the internal emotional state of those with this type of confounding depression, and to raise awareness about the disease so that others might better understand and support their friends and family members who suffer from it - typically quietly, and for long periods of time. As the NIH page describes it, some individuals never completely recover.

Gradient (gazes of the same color) for solo piano was written for UF pianist Kama Rasmussen in the fall of 2005. Kama premiered the piece at Georgia State University the following semester and has performed the piece several times since. The pitch system used in the piece follows the biological principle of Autopoiesis, whereby disparate scale systems create a circular, self-sustaining system of pitches in constant movement.

Swallowtail for organ and computer was commissioned by Heike Sabrina Burghart Rice for her DMA recital at the University of Cincinnati in 2005. It premiered on July 29, 2005 at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, and has since been performed by Ms. Rice several times in the Baltimore, MD area.

The Long Way 'Round for percussion and computer was my Master's Thesis at Bowling Green State University. The piece was composed for Matthew Duvall of eighth blackbird. The premiere is currently planned for the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival in April of 2005.

In the Gloaming for prerecorded media began as a diversion, the initial impulse occuring in my hotel room while at the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival. While there, Several pieces by Alvin Lucier were presented that involved closely-tuned oscillators. I found the phenomenon of beating patterns beautiful and fascinating, and set out to explore their "introspective" qualities. More importantly, the piece explores twilight, the ending of things, and the realization that with time, vibrations fade away, and the bubbling excitement in our lives is rarely perpetual. The piece premiered on April 26, 2004 at BGSU, and has been performed at Threshold, SEAMUS 2005, and the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival.

Three Songs on poems by Hart Crane, for soprano and Max/MSP, was written for soprano Sarah Jane Price. The piece premiered on March 26, 2005 at Threshold BGSU, and has since been performed at Third Practice in Richmond, VA.

Flight of the Mice for small choir and computer premiered at Third Practice 2003. The piece was written for Schola Cantorum, the University of Richmond's select choral group, under the direction of Dr. Jeffry Riehl.

Lullaby for piano and computer aims to explore the sounds in our minds before we fall asleep. These moments can be filled with any number of things: silence, restlessness, or longing. They are not determined by reality or logic, but are loose patches of each, allowing us to disconnect from consciousness. This piece is merely a theory -- I cannot reconstructhe lullabies of my mind, because sleep inevitably erases the memories of the previous night's mental wanderings. But, sitting quietly enough, sometimes one can hear echoes. These are the fragments from which this piece is assembled. Lullaby was realized using only analog synthesizers and cell phone messages. It was completed in September of 2002, and has been performed by pianists Mark Lomanno and Dr. Kevin Orr. Lullaby is dedicated to Julie.

Listen

Everything Must Be Beautiful for multichannel tape was written in memory of Dr. Anne Kish, my friend and first music teacher, who passed away suddenly on June 9, 2001. EMBB is an attempt to remember her and the wonderful artistic weekends we spent at her farm in Madison, Virginia. Remembering is hard. On occasion I hear her saying something about music, beauty, or life - just like the clearly audible samples emerging from blurry overtones in the piece. The piece was completed in October of 2001 and premiered at the inaugural Third Practice festival the following month. It has been performed at Electronic Music Midwest, BGSU's Holding the Line concert series, North Carolina State University's Arts Now Series, BSU's Threshold Festival, and at the University of Scarborough in Scotland.