Below you will find recordings and performances of several select works. Please keep in mind that some of the audio has been taken from live performances and is therefore not of the greatest quality or perfection.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: All videos and live recordings on this website are for promotional use only. Any unauthorized use is illegal.
American Spring
2016
Roles:
Varina Davis – Soprano
Mary Todd Lincoln – Mezzo-Soprano
Joshua Chamberlain – Tenor
Spring – Soprano
Betsy – Mezzo-Soprano
Christopher Melody – Baritone
SATB Chorus
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Bb Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Horn, 1 Trumpet, 1 Trombone, Timpani, Snare Drum, Chimes, Tambourine, Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, Double Bass
ca. 1 hr 30 min
I wrote American Spring during the 2015-2016 school year, my final year as an undergraduate at Illinois Wesleyan University, in connection with the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. This opera takes place mostly in April 1865, the year Richmond burned and Lincoln died, and deals with America’s feelings of pride and shame in war. The opera’s main character is Varina Davis, the wife of confederate President Jefferson Davis. Varina offers the 1860’s Southern perspective on slavery and the war, one glossed over in most readings of our history because it is so obviously repugnant today. Varina’s personal slave, the character Betsy, offers direct counterpoint. The Civil War’s final moments are also seen from the fervent perspective of the soldiers, as well as from the grieving eyes of Mary Todd Lincoln.
My father, a Civil War enthusiast, had the original idea for the opera. We worked together on shaping the story, and the final product became a combination of historical retelling, personal drama, and modern political allegory. Many lines from the opera come directly from the actual words, spoken or written, from these historical characters. American Spring is meant to document the rise and fall of American morale during a particularly triumphant yet ruinous Spring of American history, as well as ask important questions about American values, and our capacity to make mistakes, for modern audiences.
The Hunters
2014
Roles:
Leslie – Soprano
Audrey – Soprano
Paula – Alto
Caroline – Alto
The Farmer – Baritone
Instrumentation: Flute, Bb Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano
ca. 17′
The Hunters is a comedy about four female hunters who are on a mission to dismantle the patriarchy, as well as trying not get caught when one of their jokes gets taken too far. The more hilarious the staging and costuming is, the better. As a young composer, I feel as though it’s always important to try writing in new genres when presented with the opportunity. Writing a short opera to be performed for Illinois Wesleyan University’s 150th anniversary of the School of Music was too good to pass up.
Luhu vs. the Geckos
2022
Luhu vs. the Geckos is a modern tone poem in a psychedelic pop/rock style. At its core, it’s about a dog chasing geckos. Featuring additional vocals by Michelle Astorsdotter.
A Balance
2021
A Balance is an electronic/electroacoustic work that focuses on the idea of “balance” and what it may possibly mean to us. Its atmospheric, ambient quality is meant to quiet the listener’s surroundings and create a meditative, introspective experience. Ultimately, I envision the final version of this piece to be a quasi-ballet, combining dance, lighting, and potentially other visual/performing art forms to create a live performance. All instrumental performing and recording was done myself, with vocals from soprano Elizabeth Blood and mezzo Jackie Willis.
Songs of Absence
2021
Songs of Absence is a four track EP of old and new songs that explore themes of departure, isolation, and letting go. It was released by Milwaukee based label Sickle Moon Recordings.
To Let an Essence Live
2019
After getting my feet wet in the modern singer/songwriter world right out of college, I had the urge to continue with that craft and get better. As early as February 2018, I began zeroing in on ideas for a new, more serious work in this realm. Just as many musicians do, I looked inward to personal experience for inspiration. My thoughts turned toward my grandmother Dee Dee, a significant person in my childhood, whose death was also my first real experience with losing a loved one. Musically, I had many influences in my writing that ranged from Robert Schumann to The Grateful Dead to Sufjan Stevens. Instead of trying to find a specific sound, I wanted a variety of vastly different moods and atmospheres, which hopefully gives the work a more colorful, surprising edge to it. I recorded the album in my makeshift closet studio during my free time from August – December 2018, then spent the next month fine-tuning everything during the mixing and mastering process. The result is seven songs in seven different styles that are loosely tied together in a story of dealing with our mortality.
The album starts out with somewhat of a prelude; a song with a pop punk flair about first world problems in current life today (“Connectivity”). It then transitions into a fun and (mostly) true story about a night I had in Dublin, reflecting the Irish nationality and spirit of Dee Dee (“Temple Bar”). After showing a negative and positive side of life, the album shifts to stark contemplation in a somber story about looking back through life and dealing with the inevitable end, as told from a historical musician’s perspective (“A Poet’s Love”). The center of the album is a 10-minute electroacoustic jazz piece that is meant to encourage listener meditation and personal interpretation, perhaps by focusing on a singular favorite mantra (“Give Me Each Moment”). The back half of the album then deals directly with my thoughts and feelings on Dee Dee’s legacy, beginning with a simple rock n’ roll groove about some of my favorite memories of her (“Red Hot Rebel”), then putting myself in her position and turning to the thoughts of someone on their own death bed (“My Serenity”), and finally a personal conclusion on how one might go about accepting a loss such as this, with inspiration from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Lost Star” (“Unbroken”).
Beyond the Treehouse
2017
Written, recorded, and released by myself, my first studio album is a collection of ten songs that tells a story of love, loss, and separation in leaving a place of true comfort.
A Salient Name
2016
For Mezzo-Soprano and Piano
ca. 15′
A Salient Name is a song cycle that I wrote at the end of my senior year of college. This was the first time that I wrote poetry to go along with the music. It is a series of poems that depict my time as a college student. The music was unlike anything that I had previously done. I tapped into a new voice and discovered a more popular sound to work with my other classical ideas of meter mixing and harmonic relationships.
Missa de Profecto
2015
For SSATB choir
ca. 28′
Missa de Profecto was a multi-year project. I named it “Mass of Growth” because it depicts my personal growth as a composer throughout the movements. It started in the Spring of 2012, my senior year of high school, when I wrote the Kyrie. My love for Palestrina and Renaissance choral music in general drove me to write it. The Gloria came in the Summer of 2013, still with a heavy reliance on Renaissance polyphony and somewhat of a tribute to Palestrina. I decided to take things in a more unique direction when I wrote the Credo in the Fall of 2013. In the Credo, some principles of Renaissance polyphony are dropped in order to make way for more complex harmonies and melodic developments, incorporating more of my personal ear into the music. The height of this complexity is reached at the Sanctus, written while I studied abroad in Wales in the Fall of 2014. I finally completed the Agnus Dei in the Fall of 2015, bringing a more temperate and all-encompassing close to the Mass. I would label this Mass as a neo-Renaissance work. Aside from Palestrina, Arvo Pärt was one of my main influences.
Symphony No. 1
2015
For String Orchestra
ca. 27′
It took me 2 ½ years to write Symphony No. 1. The order in which I wrote the movements was IV, III, I, and II. I wrote Movement IV in the Fall of 2012, not knowing that it would become the fourth movement to a symphony. I enjoyed writing for string orchestra so much that I decided to write three other movements to accompany it starting the following year. IV, I, and III all share a common galant-like style, while Movement II, written in the Spring of 2015, is more reserved and harmonically complex. Overall, my main influences for writing in this style were Mozart, Beethoven, and Johann Stamitz.
Deep River (Piano Arrangement)
2021
Piano Solo
ca. 4′
Commissioned by Tedd King for St. Paul’s Cathedral in Milwaukee, WI.
Softly and Tenderly (Choral Arrangement)
2021
For SATB Choir
ca. 6′
Commissioned by Joseph Kucharski for St. Paul’s Cathedral in Milwaukee, WI.
Media Vita
2015
For SATB Choir
ca. 4′
Tollite Hostias
2013
For SATB Choir
ca. 2′ 15″
Gloria Patri
2013
For SSAA Choir
ca. 4′ 30″