Manlius, NY
Born 1966, Baltimore, Maryland
Writing music is the ultimate joy. I love listening to music, but I love writing it even more. It is a game of pitches, rhythm, sound, and silence; finding the hidden music beneath the blank music paper, and then playing with it, shaping it, honing it, so as to communicate directly with the listener. I want my audience to be immersed in the music, to have communication on a personal level. I love to fit the instruments together in unique ways, to have them rely on each other. Often in my music, the individual instrumental parts themselves only paint a small portion of the picture. It is only the combination of instruments that reveal the overall musical architecture. My goal is to explore musical material and musical processes that embrace the idea of each voice working together to create a whole far greater than just the sum of its parts.
1984-1988 Bmus., Eastman School of Music
1989-1991 MM., Yale School of Music, Yale University
1991-1996 D.M.A., Cornell University
INFO ABOUT M/W: Multimedia collaboration with Celia Houdart, librettist (Paris) and Anne-Marie Cornu, visual installation, (Spain). M/W is an operetta based on text by Robert Musil and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The musicians and actors on stage interact with stunning art installations, intertwining the music, text, and art.
2000 Five Machines, for the Bang On A Can All-Stars. Bang On A Can People's Commissioning Fund Concert, Miller Theatre
2002 Mellits Consort solo Concert, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York
2003 M/W, cello, 4-hand piano, and 3 actors "Festival Emergences", Lille, France and La Grande Halle de La Villette, Paris, France.
2004 Agu, piano solo, for Andrew Russo. Cutting Room, New York
2005 String Quartet No. 2, for the Kronos Quartet. Syracuse University.
2004 Tight Sweater, for Cello, Piano, and Marimba. Commissioned by Muzik3 for Felix Fan, Andrew Russo, & David Cossin. Muzik3, San Diego, California
FORTHCOMING
2006 New work for the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Carnegie Hall, New York.
2005-6 Release of the Mellits Consort CD
2005 Tight Sweater, Fruity Pebbles, Disciples of Gouda, Agu, and Spin Released on Mellits chamber music CD
1999 8 Etudes, for Sergio and Odair Assad (published by Henry Lemoine)
1993-Present Numerous ASCAP awards John Day Jackson Prize Bernard Rogers Prize
