"Here in America people think that music must bring only pleasure, must entertain. That, of course, is not so, especially if you are a professional. Music also brings suffering and a sense of your own insignificance. It's not always comfortable to be one-on-one with it. That's why it's more pleasant to listen to music in a concert along with an audience."

-from "Balanchine's Tchaikovsky"

News Post

I will be in residence at California State University from July 10-24 for a course in brass quintet composition with the Principal Brass of the New York Philharmonic.  Looking forward to this great opportunity! 

"Why, it has often occurred to me to ask myself, do I so frequently choose death, transience, and the grave as subjects for my paintings? One must submit oneself many times to death in order some day to attain life everlasting."

-Caspar David Friedrich

Performances This Week

There will be two performances this week, including a world premiere!

My piece, Through Wind and Whispers, will have it's premiere in Europe at Bath Spa University under the direction of Jeff Boehm on Wednesday. Wish I could be there!

Davis Middle School will premiere my piece, On A Hill Far Away, this Thursday at their 8th grade concert.  This piece was written in honor of the band director's mother who past away last year.  I've gotten to work with the students each week in preparation for the concert and it has been a joy.  I must say, my favorite pieces are the ones with a dedication written on the top of the page. 

Enjoying the longing and tension

“Learning to hear passing dissonances in counterpoint, for instance, made me more attentive to (and thus in greater control of) subtle dissonances arising in other areas of experience. (the most conspicuous example is writing.) More generally, the ‘inner dancing’ involved in listening naturally suggests ‘moving well’ in life. Similarly, the organic development of a theme evident in symphonic music, or the culmination of a tension toward climax in a jazz solo, are images of motional possibilities that are akin to configurations that arise in practical life…The symphonic development of a theme brings to mind the possibility that I can take a longer view of my relationship to any particular project, that perhaps I am making progress even when my particular hours of effort seem ungratifying. Or when a project is moving comfortably forward, music of admirable complexity can suggest the possibility of organization on multiple, often subtle levels”

-Kathleen Marie Higgins, The Music of Our Lives