Mercy in a Pathless Land

The premiere performance by the Jack Quartet on March 6th, 2024 at the University of Iowa

The Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti taught that “truth is a pathless land,” a saying intended to caution the listener against following gods and gurus. While composing this piece, I entered my own kind of pathless land. As in many of my recent works, I derived the piece’s materials from the names of the performers for… Continue reading Mercy in a Pathless Land

Presence

A Preview from a rehearsal recording performed on April 25, 2022.

An article in the Appeal Democrat about the public premiere of presence on June 11, 2022. Presence is a flexible, generative, and immersive sound installation environment. The piece is powered by a computer algorithm that analyzes data in real time about the date, time, and weather of the location in which the piece is performed.… Continue reading Presence

Probably Blue

Probably Blue is a fixed media work realized in Max/MSP. It is written in 7-limit just intonation and is comprised of 3 overlapping timbral layers: an FM synthesis ostinato, filtered cello drones, and delayed trumpet samples with ring modulation. Multiple parameters of the FM and trumpet sounds are governed using probabilities including spatial placement, inharmonicity… Continue reading Probably Blue