Dear Friends:

It’s been a while since my last update so a few goodies to share.

I just returned from Bern, Switzerland where I premiered two pieces as part of the Jazzwerkstatt festival. I got to work with an awesome ensemble called Proton, augmented by some stellar brass improvising solosists and drummer. It’s been a busy winter composing, and I’m happy to say I’m stretching out a bit which always brings excitement to the composing process. My program in Switzerland wed classical and improvising musicians, and I ventured into twisting Duke Ellington’s harmonic world through my filter in one of the pieces. Called “We Love You Madly,” it uses Ellington harmonies stretched in time and tainted with gamelan sounding alterations, and such a large ensemble was perfect for a kind of Brandenberg like concerto grosso, with emphasis on the three brass, Marc Unternaehrer on tuba, Lukas Wyss on trombone and Martin Eberle on trumpet. I had an awesome time and the show went very well!

I went to Bern a little ahead of time, to enjoy a brief residency to complete my radio opera, The Mutt, about skateboarder Rodney Mullen. My radio opera is an imaginary interview as documentary on inventive and perseverant skateboarding master, Rodney Mullen. I wanted to translate the motions and sounds of skateboards into a musical idiom, and so I recorded my board in the field for sound design and composed sections with metaphorical figures of counterpoint describing the spins of the board, foot to board orientation and jumps with landings. Also the surrounding music is somewhat based on a Dead Kennedys song, Ill in the Head. It’ll be acted/”spoken worded” by me, and the text is a mish mash of Rodney’s speeches re-imagined and set in fairly precise rhythmic notation to capture Rodney’s character. Rodney’s thoughts on achievement, creativity and self-renewal portray a fascinating and sensitive thinker. Joining me will be James Moore and Taylor Levine from Dither on electric guitars. The Mutt is on Feb 28 and March 1 in NYC at Abrons Art Center, along side 5 other unique blends of radio genres and opera as part of Experiments in Opera’s Radio Operas.