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Crystalline at the 2018 Music Now Festival Oct. 24-26

I’m excited to learn that my composition Crystalline (2018) was selected for performance at the 2018 Music Now Festival held at the Landini Center for Performing and Fine Arts on the campus of Indiana State University! The piece was commissioned back in 2017 by pianists Olga Shupyatskaya and Futaba Niekawa and premiered at the Eastman School of Music, July 2, 2017, in Kilbourn Hall. Here is a link to the original performance recording:

They both will be joining me at the Music Now Festival for the performance, and am very much looking forward to working with them again along with percussionists Jimmy Finnie and Blake from ISU. I ended up revising the second percussionist for performances this past year at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Here is an audio recording of the updated version featuring pianists Timothy Hoft and Katie Leung:

And, yet, decided to once again play around with the percussion 2 part for this upcoming performance at the Music Now Festival. I’m really excited to hear the updated version and to work with everyone!

Crystalline will be performed:
Friday, October 26, 2018 at 3pm in Boyce Recital Hall
Landini Center for Performing and Fine Arts on the campus of Indiana State University

There will also be a session at 1:30 p.m. on October 26th where each Music Now composer can present music for 15 minutes.

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2018 Mid-Missouri Composers Symposium

The 2018 Mid-Missouri Composers Symposium was a wonderful experience! From July 12-22, Four composers and I were in residence at the Osage Arts Community in Belle, Missouri. Each day, we all spent the day composing and then met up early evening to share our music and ideas. I finished my new composition Cerulealina for violin, cello, 3 percussion, harp and double bass, and was so happy to have the time to do that. Many thanks to composer Nolan Stolz for the invitation to be at this artist residency!

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Nevada Chamber Orchestra players “Out of the Shadows” and Echo’s Lament

The Nevada Chamber Orchestra performed Echo’s Lament and Out of the Shadows Sunday, May 6 at the Historic Fifth Street School Auditorium in Las Vegas. The concert was called “Celebrating Women,” which honored various women of the Nevada School of the Arts including dean Shakeh Ghoukasian and UNLV College of Fine Arts dean Nancy Uscher.

Guest Conductor Alexandra Arrieche led the ensemble, delivering a beautiful performance of Out of the Shadows, which featured the NSA strings with jazz trumpet, vibraphone (performed by guest faculty Rachel Julian), piano, electric bass and drums. This was the string orchestra premiere of the piece, that was originally written back in 2012 for string quartet and commissioned by Mike Kaupa (jazz trumpet) with vibes, piano, bass and drums for premiere at the Eastman School of Music.

Conductor Chuck Cushinery led the NSA strings in a beautiful performance of Echo’s Lament, a piece written back in 2009 for the Millersville University Orchestra under the direction of Reuben Blundell, inspired by the Greek mythological story of Echo along with being in memoriam of Jennifer Mathiason, an artist and friend, whose works inspired the piece.

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NSA Chamber Orchestra plays “Out of the Shadows” May 6

This Sunday, the NSA Chamber Orchestra under the direction of guest conductor Alexandra Arrieche will perform my piece “Out of the Shadows” for string orchestra, jazz trumpet, vibraphone, piano, electric bass and drums. This will be the premiere of the string orchestra version. They rehearsed it beautifully last night and I’m very excited for Sunday! It’s going to be a great concert! 🎶🎻🎺🎹🎸🥁