September 22, 2024 I recently have had two scholarly papers accepted for publication. My article “Beyond Strophic: Prolonged Refrains, Choruses, and Bridges in the Blues, 1923–1966” was accepted for publication in Music Theory Online and is scheduled to be published in Spring 2025. Also, my article with Ralf von Appen, “Measuring the Myth: Microtiming and Tempo Variability in the Music of the Rolling Stones” has been accepted for publication in the journal Theory and Practice. Ralf and I will be hosting the Rhythm Under the Microscope conference in Vienna, Austria this coming week, including presenting our research on microtiming and tempo variability in the music of the Rolling Stones.
May 7, 2024 Ralf von Appen and I are organizing a conference on microrhythm in popular music in Vienna in September: Rhythm under the Microscope: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Microrhythm and Groove in Popular Music. Submissions to the call for papers are due May 27. Thanks to the Galan Trio from Athens, Greece for their performances of my new piece Sifting Chaparral on their tour of California universities in April and May. Performances included ones at LMU April 21st, Cal State Fullerton April 24th (video of concert, Sifting Chaparral at 1:28:25), Stanford April 29th (video of concert, Sifting Chaparral at 1:29:30), and UC Berkeley May 2nd.
March 30, 2024 I will be presenting my new paper “Living in the Shadows: Backing Vocals and Their Formal and Social Roles” at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music U.S. branch conference in Philadelphia on Sunday, April 14th. Also, the Galan Trio from Athens, Greece will be performing my new piano trio Sifting Chaparral on their tour of California in April, including at LMU’s Murphy Recital Hall on Sunday, April 21st. My review of PUBLIQuartet’s recent album What Is American will be appearing in the Journal for the Society of American Music volume 18, number 3. Finally, in November I presented my paper “‘We All Have a Hunger’: Formal Blends as Rebuilds in Popular Song” at the Society for Music Theory’s annual meeting in Denver.
October 15, 2023 Thank you to Matt Sargent for his excellent concert at LMU’s Murphy Hall on Thursday. The concert included my piece for solo guitar Per l’altrui scale as well as works by Eve Beglarian, Robert Carl, and Sargent himself. Ralf von Appen and I presented our paper “A Different Drummer: The Rise of Metronomic Regularity in Popular Music, 1965-2020” at McGill University in Montreal on Wednesday, September 20th. We then presented our paper “Measuring the Myth: Tempo and (Micro)-Timing in the Music of the Rolling Stones” at the Rhythm in Music Since 1900 conference also at McGill on September 23rd. The conference was excellent and successfully combined perspectives from different disciplines on a wide variety of musics.
October 3, 2023 I will be premiering my multimedia piece Their Own Lane this Friday, October 6th at 4 p.m. at the Inglewood Public Library (101 W Manchester Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90301). I had an LMU Faith & Justice grant this summer to make recordings in Inglewood and Westchester, documenting the soundscape in these areas, and to make a piece out of them. The name of the project was Reimagining the Soundscape. I combined the audio of the piece with newly-shot as well as historical video footage that provides a visual counterpoint. At the library event I will introduce and present the piece, after which I will lead an interactive workshop in which those attending will have the opportunity to play instruments as I improvise with the sampled sounds I used for the piece. Also, on Thursday, October 12th at 8 p.m., composer-guitarist Matthew Sargent will be presenting a concert at LMU, which will include my piece Per l’altrui scale, among other works.
July 6, 2023 I recently learned that my paper “‘We All Have a Hunger’: Formal Blends as Rebuilds in Popular Song” has been selected for presentation at the Society for Music Theory annual meeting in November in Denver. I’m looking forward to it. I returned on Sunday from the International Association for the Study of Popular Music conference in Minneapolis, where Ralf von Appen and I presented our paper “Drummers in Crisis: The Rise of Metronomic Regularity in Popular Music, 1965-2020.” Thank you to Norma Coates and Steve Waksman for organizing the conference, and thank you to those who attended and provided feedback on our talk. I heard numerous thought-provoking papers during the week.
May 15, 2023 German music theorist Ralf von Appen and I will be presenting our paper “Drummers in Crisis: The Rise of Metronomic Regularity in Popular Music, 1965-2020” at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music International Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Tuesday, June 27th. We presented a related paper, “A Different Drummer: The Rise of Metronomic Regularity in Popular Music, 1965-2020,” at the “On the drums: Métamorphoses de la batterie” conference in Strasbourg, France on Friday, April 14th. In separate news, I received a Faith & Justice Research Grant from LMU for a compositional and research project I will be doing this summer, “Environmental Justice in Westchester and Inglewood: Reimagining the Soundscape.”
May 14, 2023 Trombonist Spencer Schaffer, with me on virtual marimba, premiered my new piece for trombone and marimba Subalpine at his Master’s Recital at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles on Sunday, April 16th. Spencer did an excellent job with it, and I really enjoyed the process of developing the piece with him.
December 6, 2022 I presented my paper “Bridging the Blues: Hybrid Forms in the Blues, 1925-1965” on November 11th at the Society for Music Theory annual meeting in New Orleans. I saw numerous high-quality papers at the conference and learned a lot. In October, Ralf von Appen and I presented our paper “Measuring the Myth: Tempo and (Micro-)Timing in the Music of the Rolling Stones” at the joint meeting of the two German-speaking popular music studies organizations (IASPM D-A-CH and GfPM) in Vienna, Austria. We also presented an extended version of the paper in a public lecture at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, on October 19th.
September 17, 2022 Ralf von Appen and I presented our paper “Measuring the Myth: Tempo and (Micro-)Timing in the Music of the Rolling Stones” at the 2022 International Drum Kit Studies Conference at Boston University last weekend. The conference had many high-quality presentations, and it was great to get insight on our research from a thoughtful collection of drummers. Steve Baur’s presentation on the expressive effects of open hi-hats and ride cymbals was particularly intriguing. Thanks to Virginia Davis, Gareth Dylan Smith, and Daniel Stadnicki for organizing.
September 5, 2022 My 2021 electroacoustic piece A Drift, A Thought, A Prayer has been selected for presentation at the Research on Contemporary Composition (ROCC) conference at the University of North Georgia October 29th-30th. The conference is not far from my hometown of Atlanta, but I will be attending it virtually.
August 2, 2022 German theorist Ralf von Appen and I will be presenting our paper “Measuring the Myth: Tempo and (Micro-)Timing in the Music of the Rolling Stones” October 21st at the joint meeting of the two German-speaking popular music studies organizations (IASPM D-A-CH and GfPM) in Vienna, Austria. I haven’t been to Vienna before, so I am definitely looking forward to the trip.
June 1, 2022 I learned today that my paper “Bridging the Blues: Hybrid Forms in the Blues, 1925-1965” has been selected for presentation at the Society for Music Theory (SMT) annual conference in New Orleans November 10-13. Also, I recently learned that my joint paper with Ralf von Appen, “Measuring the Myth: Tempo and (Micro-)Timing in the Music of the Rolling Stones” has been accepted for presentation at the 2022 International Drum Kit Studies Conference at Boston University September 9-10. Ralf and I presented a version of this paper this past weekend at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-U.S. Conference at the University of MIchigan. Thanks to Andres Amado and Norma Coates for leading the conference and to Ralf for allowing me the opportunity to collaborate with him.
January 16, 2022 My piece for flute and piano, Settling Up, has been selected for performance at the College Music Society Southwest Conference the weekend of February 25th-27th at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. I will be performing the piece with flutist Daria Binkowski. The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 26th.
January 3, 2022 My article about the Rolling Stones and AABA form has been published in the Society for Music Theory's academic journal Music Theory Online, Volume 27, Number 4. It is entitled “Generic Norms, Irony, and Authenticity in the AABA Songs of the Rolling Stones, 1963–1971.” Thanks to Mitch Ohriner and the MTO editors for their work in assembling the issue.
December 26, 2021 The joint paper proposal that German theorist Ralf von Appen and I submitted to the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US) conference in May has been accepted. Our paper is entitled “Measuring the Myth: Tempo and (Micro-)Timing in the Music of the Rolling Stones” and we will present it at the University of Michigan May 26-28, 2022. Our work on it grew in part out of reading reactions to the death of Stones drummer Charlie Watts in August. Also, we have released the Call for Music for the 2022 edition of LMU’s new music festival, New Music on the Bluff. We welcome submissions from high school and junior college students. The call can be viewed here.
November 16, 2021 My paper proposal for the College Music Society Southwest Conference has been accepted, so I will be presenting the paper at the conference at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California the weekend of February 25th-27th. My paper is entitled, “Bridging the Blues: Hybrid Forms in the Blues, 1935-1965.” I look forward to attending. Also, we are continuing to broadcast new episodes of our radio program, Music From the Bluff, on KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles on the second Thursday of each month at 6 p.m., with the show repeating each subsequent Thursday until the next premiere. My piece for violin and piano, Lunar Refraction, was featured on the show that premiered October 14th.
August 12, 2021 This Saturday, August 14th, at 4 p.m. Pacific/7 p.m. Eastern I will be putting on a live online concert with composer/guitarist Lee Weisert and guitarist Eric Escalante. The concert will be broadcast live on YouTube at this link. Lee's in North Carolina and Eric and I are in LA, and we'll be using the magic of Jamulus, Zoom, and OBS in order to play together. The concert will feature a new modular piece I wrote for two guitars (“Ten on Ten”), a new piece of mine for solo guitar that Eric will play (“Per l’altrui scale”), an electroacoustic piece by me (“A Drift, A Thought, A Prayer”), an interview/conversation with Lee, and a live guided improvisation. The Facebook event page is here.
May 20, 2021 I have completed a new electroacoustic piece, I Was Drifting, Then I… I used a combination of FScape, Ableton, Sound Forge, and Audition to transform and shape audio. I will be releasing the piece soon on Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Also, LMU published a news article about the new concentration in the music major that I am leading: Contemporary Styles and Practices. It will focus on popular music and music technology, with classes for the concentration kicking off this fall.
April 18, 2021 Thanks to all the performers, guest faculty, and student composers that helped the first New Music on the Bluff festival come together yesterday. The video of the festival concert can be viewed on YouTube at this link. This evening (Sunday) at 7 pm Pacific, LMU’s chamber ensembles will have their spring recital online. Included in the concert will be the premiere of a piece for four percussionists that I wrote in collaboration with composers Mark Saya, Aaron Smith, and Ryan Dorin entitled Four for Four. Free virtual tickets are available here.
March 27, 2021 Violinist Ken Aiso and pianist Valeria Morgovskaya will be performing my Sidetracked and Lunar Refraction on this evening’s LMU Faculty Recital at 7 p.m. Pacific. You can get a free ticket for the online performance here. Also, Northwestern’s new music festival NUNC! 4 will be taking place online April 24th. My electroacoustic piece Plateau will be presented as part of the festival.
February 26, 2021 Thanks to violinist Ken Aiso and pianist Valeria Morgovskaya for performing my piece Sidetracked on their Instagram concert this evening. They played it beautifully. The video will be posted here.
February 19, 2021 Violinist Ken Aiso and pianist Valeria Morgovskaya will be performing my piece Lunar Refraction as part of their concert live on Instagram this evening at 8 pm Pacific/11 pm Eastern. They are both wonderful musicians, and I’m looking forward to the concert.
February 13, 2021 I recently completed my portion of a new piece for four percussionists that will be recorded by members of LMU’s Percussion Ensemble this spring. I wrote one player’s part for the piece, with Aaron Smith, Ryan Dorin, and Mark Saya independently writing the other three players’ parts. The four parts will be combined together to make the piece, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes out! Also, we debuted the second episode of our new radio show on KXLU 88.9 FM on Thursday. Our College of Communication and Fine Arts did a write-up about the show. The second show will repeat on Thursdays at 6 p.m. Pacific until our next new show debuts March 11th.
January 16, 2021 I’m excited that violinist Ken Aiso and pianist Valeria Morgovskaya will be performing two of my pieces for violin and piano, Sidetracked and Lunar Refraction, at the LMU Faculty Recital March 27th. The recital will be streamed online that day. Ken and Valeria are great performers, and they will also be playing a separate recital of French music February 12 at 7:30 p.m.
January 14, 2021 I helped organize a new radio program on KXLU 88.9 Los Angeles and kxlu.com featuring the music of LMU Department of Music students, alumni, and faculty. It premiered this evening 6-7 p.m. and included an interview with me and one of my pieces, A veces, hecho de nada... Thanks to students Josh Thompson, Lilly McCarty, and John Reichmuth for helping to make it happen. The program will re-air every week on Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific until our second show premieres February 11th.
December 19, 2020 At LMU we are launching a new music festival called New Music on the Bluff 21. High school and two-year college composers are invited to submit scores for performance at the online festival and participate in lessons, master classes, and more. The call for scores can be viewed here and the application form is here.
November 27, 2020 As part of an LMU online open house, I taught a sample class on Zoom on October 31st for prospective students on form in popular music from the 1960s to today. You can view the recording here: Head & Heart: Form in Popular Music from 1960 to Today.
October 17, 2020 Anouk Dyussembayeva at Composium interviewed me and did a write-up about LMU Music and my background. The Composium website is a great resource regarding music composition and American academic music programs. The LMU College of Communication & Fine Arts (CFA) has included me in an article welcoming new faculty members.
July 13, 2020 I have posted here the recording that violinist Juan Carlos Ortega and I made in January in Columbus of my recent piece Lunar Refraction. We premiered it that same week. Thanks again to Juan for his great playing.
June 14, 2020 Trombonist Spencer Schaffer will be premiering the revised version of my piece Once Removed live online this Tuesday at 2 pm Central (12 pm Pacific), along with some Bach, Telemann, Bernstein, Diethelm, and Pappal. He will be posting the link to join the concert here.
May 10, 2020 I am excited to be joining the faculty of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles starting this August as an Assistant Professor of Music Theory/Composition. I have really enjoyed starting to get to know my new faculty colleagues there and look forward to joining them soon. This will be a return for us, as we moved from Los Angeles to Chicago in 2006.
April 17, 2020 I’m thrilled that Spencer Schaffer will be premiering the revised version of my solo trombone piece Once Removed on his June virtual recital. Details will be forthcoming. Spencer is graduating from Northwestern (this will be his senior recital) and will be starting graduate trombone study at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles this fall.
March 19, 2020 I have posted a new recording of my piece Sidetracked, for violin and piano. Juan Carlos Ortega and I premiered it in Columbus, Ohio, in January. It was inspired in part by the great tradition of Appalachian train songs.
March 13, 2020 Thanks to flutist Evan Fojtik for reading through my piece Settling Up, for flute and piano, with me today. We will be recording it soon. In separate news, I received notice that the Northwestern University New Music Conference (NUNC!), set for April, has been canceled due to the spread of COVID-19. They might be able to hold the conference next year, but haven’t determined that at this point.
March 12, 2020 I have posted a recording of Madeline Widman (clarinet) and Victor Guerrero (tenor sax) playing A Wilder Swing, which they premiered at North Park University’s Anderson Chapel in October. The piece was commissioned by North Park to honor Ralph Wilder’s years of service.
February 10, 2020 My electroacoustic piece Plateau has been selected for presentation at the Northwestern University New Music Conference (NUNC!) in April. It will be presented at a concert at 5 p.m. in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on Sunday, April 26th. I will be premiering a new eight-channel version of the piece.
January 5, 2020 Thanks to Worthington Christian Village and Wesley Glen Retirement Community of Columbus, Ohio, for hosting Juan Carlos Ortega and me for our performances yesterday. We premiered Sidetracked, Lunar Refraction, and Le papillon agité, and performed some additional works. Juan and I also did a recording session on Friday, so I will post recordings once they are ready.
December 20, 2019 I performed my Lunar Reflections at Brighton Gardens of Dunwoody in suburban Atlanta today in a holiday concert. I followed my son Alex’s excellent rendition of “Für Elise.” I enjoyed getting to meet the residents.
December 11, 2019 My concerts with violinist Juan Carlos Ortega will be on January 4th in Columbus, Ohio. We will be performing at Worthington Christian Village at 3 pm and Wesley Glen Retirement Community at 7 pm. We will be premiering Sidetracked and Lunar Refraction, and will also play some additional music for violin and piano, including the first movement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Number 5 (“Spring”).
November 26, 2019 Violinist Juan Carlos Ortega and I will be premiering my piece for violin and piano, Sidetracked, on January 4th in Columbus, Ohio. Juan is on the faculty at Otterbein University, Nazarene University, and the Jefferson Academy of Music at The Ohio State University.
October 13, 2019 Thank you to Jenny Conlee, Kelly Hogan, Nora O’Connor, and members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras for performing my arrangement of the Decemberists’ “Once in My Life” last night at the second annual Halo Awards. It was also great to get to learn more about some of the cutting-edge medical research going on in Chicago and the people that make it happen.
October 6, 2019 Thanks to Maddy Widman and Victor Guerrero for their performance last night of my new piece, A Wilder Swing, for clarinet and tenor sax. It was a secret commission from North Park University to celebrate clarinetist Ralph Wilder, who played on the same concert, the North Park Concert Band’s 10th Annual Music for Special Families concert. It was great to hear Ralph play. He has retired from North Park after many years of teaching there.
September 3, 2019 I’m preparing an arrangement of the Decemberists’ “Once in My Life” for the second annual Halo Awards, celebrating medical research. The event will be at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry on October 12th at 7 p.m. The arrangement will be performed by members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. Jenny Conlee of the Decemberists will also be performing at the event.
August 20, 2019 On Thursday, September 19th, violinist Owen Ruff and I will be playing my piece Settling In at the North Park University Faculty Showcase Recital. The concert is free and open to the public and will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Anderson Chapel, 3225 West Foster Avenue in Chicago. Owen is an excellent violinist who recently completed his master’s in violin performance at Northwestern University and will be playing in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago starting this fall.
June 11, 2019 This Saturday (the 15th) at the University of Tennessee’s Natalie L. Haslam Music Center I will present my paper “‘It’s Just Too Much’: Hypervirtuosity and Genre in the Music of Conlon Nancarrow, Art Tatum, and Black MIDI.” It will be in the 11-12:30 session of the Nief-Norf Genre Lines Weekend Summit.
April 29, 2019 I will be presenting a new paper about the relationship between the music of Conlon Nancarrow and that of pianist Art Tatum at Genre Lines, a new music weekend summit that is part of the Nief-Norf Summer Festival. The summit will take place the weekend of June 14–15 in Knoxville. I’m looking forward to it.
November 29, 2018 I have completed a new piece for violin and piano, Sidetracked, for violinist Juan Carlos Ortega. It was inspired in part by folk songs referencing trains and tracks, like “900 Miles,” from which the title comes. A score excerpt and program note are available here.
September 10, 2018 My nine-year-old son, Alex Carter, will be giving the premiere of my piano piece Lunar Reflections at the Music Institute of Chicago Evanston East campus at 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, September 22nd. He is a student of Jay Kolin. For a video preview, see here.
June 25, 2018 I have posted here a recording of the April performance of my choral piece A veces, hecho de nada... by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Donald Nally. They did a great job with it.
February 18, 2018 Video from the January 31st performance of my piece Settling In at (Le) Poisson Rouge in Manhattan is posted here. Thanks to the performers Joenne Dumitrascu and Miles Massicotte.
January 14, 2018 My piece for violin and piano, Settling In, will be performed in the Discovery Series at (Le) Poisson Rouge in Manhattan on Wednesday, January 31st. The performance will be followed by pianist Jenny Lin performing Philip Glass's piano etudes in a Relevant Tones: Live at LPR broadcast.
January 9, 2018 I have learned that my choral work A veces, hecho de nada... has been selected for performance at NUNC! 3, the Northwestern University New Music Conference. The piece will be premiered by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble the evening of Friday, April 20th, at Northwestern. I am looking forward to it and to the conference generally.
January 4, 2018 I have posted an excerpt of the score of my new piece for solo piano, Lunar Reflections. I wrote it for my son to learn.
November 25, 2017 Thank you to Mary Ruth Laverty Solem for her premiere of my organ piece Descant in Dunwoody, Georgia last Sunday. I have posted audio of her performance here. I have also posted audio of my most recent piece, The Temptation of Salome.
October 5, 2017 I recently learned my piece for violin and piano, Settling In, was selected for performance at Late Night at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York, October 20th at 9:30 p.m. as part of their Discovery Series. The piece will be performed by Joenne Dumitrascu and Anna Betka prior to the performance of three works by Steven Stucky. Also, my piece for organ, Descant, will be premiered by Mary Ruth Laverty Solem the morning of November 19th at Dunwoody United Methodist Church in suburban Atlanta. I will be presenting my paper on the Rolling Stones and AABA form at the National Conference of The College Music Society in San Antonio at 10:15 a.m. on October 26th.
May 23, 2017 Wick Simmons has posted video here of himself performing my arrangement of Ravel's Kaddisch at his recital April 16th at Northwestern's Galvin Recital Hall with the Northwestern University Cello Ensemble and harpist Alyssa Hensley. The arrangement is published by Ovation Press.
May 6, 2017 I visited North Vancouver, British Columbia last weekend to present my paper "'Quite Vaudeville in a Way': The Rolling Stones' Selective Appropriation of a Declining Form" at the Pacific Northwest Regional Conference of The College Music Society. I have learned that my paper has been accepted for presentation at the National Conference of The College Music Society in San Antonio, October 26–28. It will be my first time returning to San Antonio since I spent the first few weeks of my life there.
December 13, 2016 My paper "'Quite Vaudeville in a Way': The Rolling Stones’ Selective Appropriation of a Declining Form" has been selected for presentation at the 2017 Pacific Northwest Regional Conference of The College Music Society. The conference will be held at Capilano University in Vancouver, British Columbia April 28-29.
December 11, 2016 I learned today that my paper proposal for the February 2017 conference of IASPM-US (the U.S. branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music) has been accepted. The conference will be in Cleveland February 23-25. My paper is titled "'Quite Vaudeville in a Way': The Rolling Stones’ Selective Appropriation of a Declining Form," and I look forward to presenting it.
October 30, 2016 I am enjoying teaching freshman music theory and sophomore aural skills at Northwestern this school year, in addition to my North Park teaching. At North Park in the spring I will be teaching orchestration, Aural Skills I, and Fundamentals.
September 3, 2016 I am happy to be back teaching at North Park University this year. I am currently teaching Aural Skills II, Fundamentals of Music I, and Medieval & Renaissance Music. I will also be teaching Musicianship again at the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston. I enjoyed meeting with Mary Ruth Laverty Solem in Atlanta last month regarding my piece for organ, Descant. She is preparing it for an upcoming performance. Also, Access Contemporary Music has posted video of the performance of my piece Over Juneau last year in Milwaukee (click on the picture with the rising tower at the bottom to access the video).
April 1, 2016 Registration for Northwestern summer classes, including my Beatles and Stones class, begins Monday, April 11th. On a related note, I am working on a paper that examines the formal types used by the Rolling Stones and how their approach to form relates to other elements of the music. I am also working on composing some solo guitar pieces for Rami Gabriel, as well as a new piece for multiple guitars that I am recording myself.
November 23, 2015 I have posted a recording of my recent work for clarinet, cello, and electronics, Over Juneau. Christie Miller played clarinet and Alyson Berger played cello. The piece premiered at Milwaukee's City Hall September 19th.
November 13, 2015 I will be returning to Northwestern University in the summer of 2016 (June 20-July 30) to teach The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, a non-major class that I previously taught in 2014 and 2013. I have really enjoyed teaching it in the past, and I look forward to returning to it. I will be reviving the Facebook page for the class. I will be able to update the course with the new books and scholarship that have come out since I last taught it.
August 29, 2015 I completed my new work for Doors Open Milwaukee: Over Juneau will be performed during the day on September 19th at Milwaukee's City Hall. The piece was inspired by the building and the electronic component uses a recording I made August 6th of the City Hall bell (named Solomon Juneau after Milwaukee's first mayor). Christie Miller will be playing clarinet and Alyson Berger will be on cello. Also, I am now teaching music theory at DePaul College Prep high school in Chicago and will be starting teaching Musicianship at the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston on September 15th. This Monday, the 31st, I will begin teaching my Aural Skills II class at North Park University.
July 7, 2015 Juan Carlos Ortega and I will be performing Settling In at Juan's recital on Monday, July 20th, in Nerinx, Kentucky (an hour south of Louisville). The concert will be at 7 p.m. at the Loretto Motherhouse Church, on the grounds of the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse. Also, I was one of four composers selected by Access Contemporary Music to write a new piece to be performed September 19th at a Milwaukee architectural landmark in conjunction with Doors Open Milwaukee. I will be writing a piece for clarinet, cello, and two-channel playback, inspired by Milwaukee's City Hall, that will be performed there on the 19th and 20th. Finally, I look forward to returning to teach at North Park University this fall.
May 15, 2015 I have posted the recording of the February performance of Settling In at the College Music Society Southern Regional Conference in Columbus, Mississippi. Juan Carlos Ortega played violin and I played the piano part. We will likely be performing the piece again this summer in Louisville, Kentucky.
February 28, 2015 I greatly enjoyed performing Settling In with Juan Carlos Ortega and attending the Southern Regional Conference of the College Music Society last weekend. The hall there was beautiful and the people were friendly. Juan, this time with pianist Mei-Hsuan Huang, will be performing Settling In again at 4:30 p.m. on March 28th at Michigan State University at the Great Lakes Regional Conference.
January 22, 2015 I now have more details on my performance with Juan Carlos Ortega of Settling In, for violin and piano, in Mississippi next month. The concert will be at 7:30 on Friday, February 20th in Kossen Auditorium at the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi. I'm looking forward to it.
January 9, 2015 My friend, clarinetist Benjamin Mitchell, recently founded a conductorless ensemble in Los Angeles named the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra. They are in the midst of their opening season. For more information and to see their concert schedule, visit their website.
December 20, 2014 Settling In, for violin and piano, has been selected for performance at the 2015 Southern Regional Conference of the College Music Society February 19-21 at the Mississippi University for Women. I will be performing it with violinist Juan Carlos Ortega.
December 5, 2014 My new piece for violin and piano, Settling In, has been selected for performance at the 2015 Great Lakes Regional Conference of the College Music Society March 27-28. The piece will be performed by Juan Carlos Ortega and Mei-Hsuan Huang at Michigan State University.
November 1, 2014 Ovation Press has posted their publication of my arrangements for cello ensemble of Ravel's Kaddisch. I made two arrangements, one for cello soloist and cello ensemble and a second one that includes a harp.
August 14, 2014 I will be teaching aural skills and music theory at North Park University in Chicago this coming school year. I look forward to meeting my new students!
June 8, 2014 My mentor and friend Lee Hyla passed away on Friday. He was a great teacher and an even better human being.
May 31, 2014 I have posted the score of my new organ piece, Descant. Also, the French ensemble Court-circuit will be performing Angle of Refraction at the June in Buffalo festival (in Baird Recital Hall) at 4:30 this Friday, June 6th.
May 24, 2014 The Northwestern University Cello Ensemble under Hans Jensen recorded my arrangement for solo cello and eight cellos of Ravel's song Kaddisch today. I enjoyed working with the group and look forward to the release of their new CD.
March 18, 2014 My piece Angle of Refraction, for bass clarinet (doubling on B-flat clarinet), piano, violin, and cello, will be performed at June in Buffalo the week of June 2nd. I look forward to attending the festival! I had a great experience there in 2011.
December 13, 2013 My piece Setting Out, for violin and piano, will be performed by Juan Carlos Ortega and Mei-Hsuan Huang in Fargo, North Dakota on March 29, 2014. The performance will take place as part of the Great Lakes Regional Conference of the College Music Society, to be held at North Dakota State University. I'm looking forward to the conference.
November 8, 2013 I'll be back teaching my Beatles and Rolling Stones non-major course at Northwestern in Summer 2014. I had a great experience with it last year. This time it will be a six-week course (June 24-July 31) rather than three weeks. Feel free to check out the Facebook page for the class. Also, I'm working on a new organ piece for Mary Ruth Laverty Solem in Dunwoody, Georgia.
September 13, 2013 Congrats to this year's Iron Composer winner, Jakub Polaczyk! This year's secret ingredient was audience participation. A play-by-play of the 2013 competition can be found here. Hard to believe it's been a year since I participated. A summary of last year's competition is online here.
September 12, 2013 I'll be back teaching sophomore aural skills at Northwestern this fall. I'm looking forward to it!