After deciding with the Nebula Ensemble that my piece for them in spring 2022 would be a song cycle based on the Covid-19 pandemic, I started to think about what I wanted in the piece. What would the text be? I half-heartedly started looking for poetry on the plague, thinking my piece could be a kind of historical allegory, but then I realized that what I really wanted was contemporary words, contemporary ideas, about this extraordinary time we are living through. I asked my poet colleague at Regis University, Alyse Knorr, if she would write some words based on the pandemic, for setting to music. She immediately agreed and sent me eight beautiful poems about this modern plague, from the point of view of, among others, a patient, a daughter, a doctor, a friend, and the planet itself. I decided to set five of her eight. I pondered the best order of the poems and ultimately decided to begin with Knorr’s poem “The Patient,” which opens with an American’s casual disbelief about the severity of what was to come; and to end with Knorr’s poem “The Friend,” which expresses the way in which the pandemic after only a few weeks seemed to have always been with us. . .and also the way in which it would always be with us. Thus, I ended the cycle with Knorr’s words “here and here and always,” which is the second to last line in “The Friend.” I chose this ending because, at least in February 2022, when I finished the work, it feels as if we will never be free of this scourge. The music ranges from frantic to lamenting, and from peaceful to unsettled, reflecting the myriad emotions that we have all experienced over the last two years.

As a performer and listener, I find a closer connection to music through movement whether it’s nodding my head or tapping to the beat or just moving my body with the melodic tune. Hiccup-pated Groove originates from elements of movement and improvisation and serves as the common ground for the listener to enjoy. As the groove progresses, the simplicity of the tune gradually turns complex with contrasting remarks and unexpected interruptions that can quickly surprise a listeners comfort zone. Despite the bumpy roads and smooth-sailing songs that come about, the groove will always be there to help the listener sit back, chillax and enjoy the musical ride.

Ominous Presence was composed in 2022 for NEBULA Ensemble. The composition is inspired by Charles Stein’s photograph, Bird in the Bush. Stein’s photograph is dark, complex, and possesses a sense of weight, motion, and tension, which is similar to what is intended aurally in Ominous Presence. This is not a piece of program music, it is an abstraction. Stein’s photograph abstract’s a visual moment by capturing it and removing from time, while Ominous Presence abstracts a moment in time through the imposition sound. Each iteration of Ominous Presence will vary in detail because of the variation introduced by performer’s choice/decision making that is composed into the work.

Reconstructing Apoptosis was inspired by a massive art installation called apoptosis created by ceramic artists Katie Caron and Martha Russo and underwritten by the Denver Art Museum.

In December 2020, we collaborated with Wild Beautiful Orchestra to create a performance reflecting our thoughts as 2020 came to an end. This video contains three pieces: “Ohne” (“Without”) @ 0:12, “Looking Within” @ 2:58, and “Until Then” @ 5:30.

“As you hear these groove-tacular sounds, MOST LIKELY you will hear the interruptions of our cellular devices, falling into the mix of the acoustic beats.”