One Huge February!

As a composer, there isn’t much better than having your music performed - let alone three times in less than a month!

In mid-February I was part of the student team hosting N_SEME (National Student Electronic Music Event) at the University of Illinois. You can see us standing together below (trying not to look exhausted) after a weekend of concerts, research paper talks, and sound installations. It was seriously awesome being a part of this group.

In late February, Charles Corey and Luke Fitzpatrick of the Harry Partch Ensemble came to record student works and give concerts of their own. I didn’t manage to snag a picture with the guys, but we had a super fun late-night recording session, and you can hear that performance below. They played my piece When This Fire Dies Our Shadows Roam. It’s for Partch’s adapted guitar and adapted viola, and I’m really impressed with how they put it together!

Come early March, the IME (Illinois Modern Ensemble) performed my work A Clash in the Defeating Stillness. You can see the musicians standing after the performance below, and you can listen to their performance here too! I was thrilled to have so many talented people working on this piece, because I really love working with larger ensembles.

Just a few days after that, my wife and I flew to the NASA 2020 biennial conference (North American Saxophone Alliance) in beautiful Tempe, Arizona. When I wasn’t taking in the flora and fauna, I was enjoying the conference and the performance of my saxophone octet Inscribed on Moonlight. This piece was performed by the talented Khroma and Soma quartets, and you can see them performing in the auditorium and posing with me below. Khroma commissioned me to write this for them and it was an absolute pleasure. You can listen to their performance below!