Videos

Motion was written for pianist Tomoko Deguchi, violinist Tatiana Karpova, and cellist Oksana McCarthy. The trio premiered Motion as part of the Providence Chamber Music Series in Charlotte, NC, on January 15, 2023. The idea for motion dates back to my childhood. When I was five years old my mother’s electric blender failed from a burnt out motor. She was going to throw it out, but I asked if I could have it. I was curious about how it worked. At that time small hand-held kitchen appliances were held together with bolts and nuts, not spot welds. That meant I could take it apart and put it back together… which I did… over and over again. I remember being fascinated by how the gears and cogs all interacted to make the beaters spin. I often wonder if that was the day I was destined to be a maker of some kind. Motion is the latest in a series of my compositions that are constructed from assembling multiple moving parts that interact with one another and create more complex composite motions. All three instruments are featured at some point in the piece. dum spiro, spero was commissioned by the South Carolina Music Teachers Association (SCMTA). It was written for pianist Tomoko Deguchi who premiered it at the annual SCMTA state conference at Anderson University in Anderson South Carolina on November 4, 2022. The commission was to write a piece that reflected on South Carolina’s state motto, dum spiro, spero which translates into English as “While I breathe, I hope” which can be seen on many South Carolina licenses plates. I decided to start the piece with a simple motive that would represent hope. The motive then moves through various harmonic and rhythmic environments sometimes facing adversity. In the end hope prevails with a final statement of the opening theme still intact. Special thanks to Tomoko Deguchi for her beautiful performance and interpretation of dum spiro, spero, Anderson University for hosting the state conference, Dr. LH Dickert for producing the video, and all of the good people in SCMTA who bring music into the lives of so many in our state.

Threads and Shadows is a collaboration between The Sarah Council Dance Project and me. The performance features choreography by Sarah Council and Alex Warren, dancers Jenn Jones, Emmanuel Malette, Milanda McGinnis, Claire Nagy-Kato, Hannah Nichols, Dylan Reddish, Amanda Rentschler and Samantha Salvato, and music and sound design by me. This video is a trailer of excerpts from the live performance at the Charlotte BOOM Festival in 2019.

The Space Between is a collaboration between Sarah Council – choreographer, Leonard Mark Lewis – composition and piano, and me – sound design/signal processing/composition. The performance featured dancers Emily Morgan and Kelly Ozust. Videography by Toby Shearer.

Negotiating Balance was a collaboration between artist Oscar Soto and myself. Oscar made a series of wood sculptures inspired by playgrounds. The sculptures are of exaggerated size and reference items found on playgrounds. Oscar approached me about composing sound design and music that would enhance the gallery exhibition of his work. The result was a gallery exhibit of his work enhanced by my sound design and music and lighting design. We thought it would be a good idea to document the exhibit so Oscar had a professional photographer document the pieces. This video combines the photographs and my sound design and music. It is intended to capture the experience of a visit to the exhibition.

Alhambra Tiles was inspired by the tiles, bas reliefs, and mosaics at Alhambra Palace in Granada Spain. It was written for the Out of Bounds Ensemble in 2010. The instrumentation is Flute (doubling Piccolo), Horn in F, and Piano. It consists of a prelude and a postlude separated by seven short movements that are based on structural and decorative elements found in the tiles, bas reliefs, and mosaics at Alhambra Palace. The prelude and postlude should always be included and must be performed at the beginning and end of the piece respectively. However, the ordering of the seven interceding movements is left to the discretion of the performers and it is not mandatory to include all of the tiles, bas relief, and mosaic movements in all performances. All movements should be performed with no break between them, utilizing the quarter-note ostinato in the piano to transition from one movement to the next. The bas reliefs each feature one of the three instrument in a more prominent role within the ensemble. This live performance features Amy Orsinger Whitehead – Flute, Christopher Griffin – Horn in F, and Tomoko Deguchi – Piano. It was recorded at the Providence Chamber Music Series in Charlotte, NC USA on September 22, 2019. You can see me in the background advancing a slide show of images from my visit to Alhambra Palace. The images are optional, but audience reaction was very positive. Immersion is my latest video collaboration with artist Seth Rouser. Immersion was created for and premiered at the Water in the World: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Access and Sustainability conference at Winthrop University held on November 7, 2015 in Rock Hill, SC USA. It is a tribute to the inherent beauty of moving water. Seth includes images of water in its gaseous form alongside images of moving water in liquid form. The emphasis is on motion and the surface qualities of moving water. I wanted to reflect and amplify the motion and surface reflection aspects of water in Seth’s video. I chose guitar and bass, with a few synthesized pads for the source materials for the music. The constant and steady motion of water on our planet is represented by a constant and even flow of notes in the guitar part. The music was recorded in my home studio and I performed all of the guitar, bass, and synthesizer parts. It was a pleasure to work once again with Seth and I hope to do more projects with him in the future. The anacoustic zone is the region of the earth’s atmosphere, above an altitude of about 160 kilometers, where the distance between the air molecules is greater than the wavelength of sound, and sound waves can no longer be propagated. One thing I find attractive about composing electroacoustic digitally rendered music is the possibilities inherent in the ability to approach sound, and the transformation of sound, in ways that are not otherwise available. In Anacoustic Zones I was intrigued by the possibility of creating metaphorical anacoustic zones through which sound-generating sources pass into and out of and the sounds they emit are disintegrated or reanimated in the process. The substance of the music becomes the aural evidence of anacoustic processes acting on sound generating sources as they near, pass through, and emerge from these zones. It is the transition from a normal state to immersion in the anacoustic zone (or visa versa) that is elevated to the perceptual surface of the music. Each zone can have a unique effect on sound and disintegrate or reanimate it in different ways. Similarly, subtly different sounds may react differently as they approach or passes through the same zone. Content, gestures, and form are governed by the aural, surface evidence of the effect that each zone has on sound source materials. The result is a work that exists somewhere on the continuum between articulation and timbre. Special thanks to visual artist Seth Rouser who created this wonderful video translation/interpretation of the original audio. Momentum is a collaboration with visual artist Seth Rouser and choreographer Val Ifill. It was based on an original concept by pianist Tomoko Deguchi (all Winthrop University faculty in the College of Visual and Performing Arts). The video was created by Seth and uses images of other Winthrop fine arts faculty works. Val supplied the choreography for dancer Kristin Ramirez. I composed the music and digital audio. The music features Winthrop faculty Tracy Patterson on alto saxophone and Tomoko Deguchi on piano. The chamber ensemble for the live performance included Jill O’Neill – flute, Deborah Loomer – clarinet, David Kulma – oboe, LH Dickert – guitar, and Thomas Hildreth – bass. This video shows Seth’s video with my studio rendering of the music. Momentum was written for the College of Visual and Performing Arts Showcase as part of the presidential inauguration celebration. Digitritus is a collaboration with visual artist Seth Rouser. The video was created by Seth and I composed the music. The video features previous art works by Seth and found objects that he scanned then digitally altered. In addition to newly composed material, I also used fragments from my previous electroacoustic works re-contextualized, digitally processed, and edited. Digitritus was created for the 2013 Winthrop University Faculty Art Exhibit. 9 Dreams of Flying… is a collaboration between myself and visual artist Michael Compton and his design team at Envisual. 9 Dreams of Flying… scored for flute, violin, cello, piano, and video was written for the 2013 Charlotte New Music Festival. Special thanks to Elizabeth Kowalski for organizing CNMF 2013 and to the good people at Envisual for all their hard work rendering the visuals for this work. This performance features Out of Bounds Ensemble members and guests Erinn Frechette – flute, Tatiana Karpova – violin, Matthew Lavin – cello, and Tomoko Deguchi – piano. ///Elements for flute, cello, and piano was commissioned by the Blue Ridge Chamber Players and premiered at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC on February 3, 2013. It is based on art works from the NCMA permanent collection. The performance was accompanied by visuals featuring the art works each segment of the piece is based upon. This video features the Blue Ridge Chamber Players, Amy Orsinger Whitehead – flute, Nick Lampo – cello, and Tomoko Deguchi – piano. Little Flowers was a collaboration between photographer and visual artist Phil Moody (video and images), myself (sound design), artist Gerry Derksen (video editing and technical support), composer Leonard Mark Lewis (vocal melody – sung by Brianna Valencia), with poetry by Siegfried Sassoon. During a trip to the UK Phil Moody had collected video and images that he brought to me with the idea for a dual screen outdoor projection with audio. Gerry Derksen provided video editing and technical support for the video and I created the sound design based on recordings of Mark Lewis’ setting for solo voice of Sassoon’s brief poetry excerpt. The result is a short video titled Fioretti or Little Flowers. Note that this is a low resolution version of the video. The premiere installation was projected on large dual screens outdoors at Winthrop University. Swatch Book 1 was written on the occasion of my residency at High Point University in the spring of 2012. It is a Feldman-esque exploration of a single rhythm and a single sonority, cast and re-cast in a variety of contexts. Special thanks to JW Turner for inviting me to High Point University and for the opportunity to work with HPU students and create a new work for the occasion.