Artistic Statement
My music can be moody and thorny, but it can also be unashamedly happy. It can be comical, and it can be hard to listen to when it needs to be. Above all, I aim to serve the purpose of a project as best as possible and allow my voice to find itself within, rather than impose my “style” on a project.
As a violist I also keep an active performance schedule. I support other composers by playing new works, and I keep my classical skills and connections with other performers strong by playing more established music. Regularly interpreting music helps to keep my music easy to read and interpret for others, inspires my writing, and provides an important expressive and creative outlet not accessible through writing. I am most adept at performing in chamber ensembles but perform solo and in large ensembles as well.
My greatest strength is in creating collaborative and cooperative projects. Since 2007 I have been creating multi-disciplinary, collaborative theater works which live between the definitions of “play” and “musical” (Leaves, The Awakening, Come to Dada). In the summer of 2012 I will present a preview of my new chamber opera, The Golden Carp, which incorporates a larger-than-life puppet as a main character, created in part with puppeteer and director Amber Davis and writer Laura Leffler-McCabe. In late 2010 I joined Savage Umbrella, a Twin Cities theater group dedicated to the creation and performance of new work, as both an artistic and administrative member. Recently I began composing for the screen, including a scene to appear on the DVD of Jason Schumacher's improvisational film, The Telephone Game.
My goal for the future is to create multi-media, semi-collaborative works where music is the focus while other elements support it in non-traditional ways, and works where many things—including music—come together to create a whole where every element is of equal importance. I believe the future of live music currently depends on the presentation and function more than advances in content, and that a true mulitmedia artistic experience which resonates with the public has yet to be popularized.