Reach Beyond Grasp, for 3 separated trios (vla/bass/perc, ob/alto sax/perc, and fl/tp/perc)
The piece is based on the idea that "our reach should exceed our grasp." There are 3 trio groups (vla/bass/perc, ob/alto sax/perc, and fl/tp/perc), and the trios are grouped spatially so music moves around the stage. Each trio has a unique collection of a 7-note scale, so the trios are closely related but differ on specific scale degrees. All percussion is treated as contoured pitches, rather than specific pitches, including the roto-toms and the single multiple pitch steel pan. Written for the Akron New Music Festival, completed in November 2014, premiered by conductor Guy Bordo and student performers.
Rift
A rift is a crack or a break in something and that ‘something’ can be a geological or cloud formation, a personal relationship, groups of people, or nations. Rift, written in 2017 for Claricello, is a continuous piece but it has several sections, all having to do with the changing relationship between the clarinet and the cello.
Before the rift, like a chant
Rifting begins
Rift is nearly complete
Adrift
Mending the rift
Beyond the rift, faster
Seeking the Inner Calm
Seeking the Inner Calm, for solo piano, is part of Snapshot, an Exquisite Corpse. Pianist Clare Longendyke requested short pieces from nearly a dozen Indiana composers responding to the question "how do you feel right now?" with the aim of creating a sort of quarantine rollercoaster ride. Snapshot was premiered at the Music in Bloom Virtual Chamber Music Festival on October 2, 2020.
Seven Short Rhapsodies for Oboe and Bassoon
Seven Short Rhapsodies for Oboe and Bassoon is a series of seven very short, expressive musical statements, each about 30 seconds long, and each using closely related pitch material, but with contrasting characters. All but two are duets for oboe and bassoon. The third rhapsody is a solo for oboe, and the fifth rhapsody assigns the same solo material to the bassoon.
Seven Short Rhapsodies for Oboe and Bassoon was written in 2003 for Douglas Spaniol, bassoon, and Alicia Cordoba Tait, oboe. They premiered it in the summer of 2004 at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Australia. Published by JOMAR Press.
Skit, in 3 versions
This is a short piece with introductory level mixed meter passages for a string ensemble core, with optional bass, flutes, oboe, clarinets, horn, trumpets, trombone, and timpani. It has been performed by grade school and high school strings and small orchestra groups. Level 2.5
Start Dancing
Start Dancing, for viola and roto-toms, was commissioned in 1999 by violist Joanne Swenson-Eldridge. Start Dancing celebrates the notion of moving beyond the study of something to the actually doing of that something; allowing all the study, contemplation and rehearsing to take us finally to something more than just study, contemplation and rehearsing. Published by HoneyRock.
Symphony of Alcoves
Symphony of Alcoves has three short movements, making up a 12-minute work. It was begun in the summer of 2001 and was completed in October 2002. The title draws on the image of an alcove--a small, recessed extension of a room, often with an arched opening. Each movement might be seen as a room in a house. The outer "rooms" have alcoves (three in the first, two in the third), with each alcove having both its own identity and its own intimate relation to the main room. Each alcove also has its own instrumental character, carved from the full orchestra of the main room. A "secret passageway" of sorts recurs in each of the three rooms and serves to connect them. The second room is the smallest of the three, too small for its own alcoves, and almost an alcove itself within the whole piece. It is entirely unified by the continuous alternation of 3/8 and 7/16 meters, but with two distinct sections, rounded out by a short return to the first section. Published by Arsis Press.