PortFOLIO
Ouroboros (2023)
for Orator and Percussion Trio [7’]
Video by Four/Ten Media
This was the first chamber work in which I myself was a performer, a difficult undertaking considering the subject matter of mental health, otherness, and contemporary society’s requirements of individuals. Inspired by the work of Mikel Rouse in his opera, Dennis Cleveland, I take the lead role in the ensemble bringing out the other performer’s inner tension with a final cathartic resolution based on a quote from Charles Ives’ General Booth Enters into Heaven.
Going Dennis (2024)
Fixed Media, for the upcoming album by my duo Ethereal Semantics [7’]
Continuing with a shared interest in Dennis Cleveland, my collaborator Sam Bernhardt and I strove to access the polyrhythmic driving energy that comes from Schillinger’s method. Part of a larger electronic project exploring textual meaning, many of the drum sounds are sourced from words that become clearer later in the album. Our creative process has been one of sharing fragments then one of us completes a track based on a said fragment, and this is one of my productions. I utilized live manipulation of Bitklavier’s Blendronic delay to provide much of the content in the track. Bitklavier is used throughout the album, with tracks in progress utilizing my self-built modular electronic instrument, Reliquary.
Gilding the Fourfold (2024)
for Soprano Saxophone and Just Intonation Piano [7’]
Self-made score follower video, Studio recording from Lawrence University
In 2023, I received a cold email from Saxophonist Evan Ney, asking to commission a work for just intonation saxophone and piano for his senior recital. Evan fully dedicated himself to relearning fingerings to enable the just intonation scale within the work, providing his performance on the studio recording here. Evan also champions the work, sharing it with other saxophonists and aiding in the creation of the front matter so that others may perform Gilding the Fourfold without my intervention. In my first chamber work using just intonation in acoustic instruments, I utilize an original 12-note fixed scale combining elements from La Monte Young’s Well-Tuned Piano and Michael Harrison’s Revelation along with other small modifications.
Reliquary (Ongoing Project)
A Modular Synthesizer with a custom EMI-sensitive feedback unit
Created as part of the University of Pittsburgh Instrument Construction Class
Below is documentation of the process of creating the custom feedback unit, the creation of the enclosure using the Pitt Open Lab’s laser engraver, and a sample of two performances done using the instrument. While it currently consists of the custom module and a compressor design I copied, I plan to expand the instrument further with Eurorack modules built from the collection of components funded by the Open Lab.
Demonstration of an early version of the custom EMI Module
Enclosure in process of laser cutting
Final Enclosure, including compressor, with space open for VCO, BBD Delay, Multimode Filter, and Mixer. On the left is the Befaco Lich I built, containing the OWL microcontroller, self-made power supply and an in progress sequencer.
Demonstration of Reliquary in performance, while doing live coding using TidalCycles.
Tohu va-vohu (2023)
for orchestra and live electronics [6.5’]
Recording by the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra
Inspired by the Jewish mystical practice of Kabbalah and the text of the Zohar, I utilized numbers derived from Hebrew text (Gematria) from the words Tohu Va-Vohu, the words used to describe the universe before the creation myth. Using serial methods I wrote melodic lines with the Gematria, creating the main motives of the work. The electronics are produced via my own live performance on the Roli Seaboard and triggering of time stretched samples, featured in this recording.