Welcome!

As a small child attending concerts, I felt that musicians onstage in the golden glow of the lights were engaged in a kind of magic- casting spells that transported me to otherworldly places. Later, as a composer in training, I became fascinated with the elaborate architecture and sonic engineering involved in creating such magical performances. For me now, a musical composition is both a narrative and a structure. It is a narrative unfolding in sound that, like all good stories, is surprising yet logical, fresh yet familiar, and particular yet universal. It is a structure that is self-exploratory, self-referential, harmonious, balanced, and beautiful. Hearing a performance, I hope my audience is simultaneously aware of the unfolding narrative and the slowly revealed structure and, in my composition process, I always keep the listening experience of the audience before me in my thoughts.

I enjoy beginning with detailed knowledge of the performers, the audience and the premiere. I then search through my store of ideas- accumulated over decades of traveling, teaching, thinking and composing- to imagine the overall form and effect of the piece.

I feel my composing is always in service to my audience and my performers, and is often also in service to social/cultural ideas that I think need to be discussed. Although I respect the view that art can be a safe, attractive antidote to the troubles of the world, I am usually more interested in art as a medium for discussion of great ideas, whether they be humorous, deadly serious, or simply wonderfully interesting. I also still believe in the role of music as a vehicle for transportation to places of magic.