When John Laverty approached me to compose a piece for wind ensemble, we had discussed the possibility of writing a soft, quiet piece for winds. In fact, my initial sketches of so faint a stillness remembered began as an intimate and hushed piece for winds. As is often the case in composing-out a piece, the music began to move in a completely different direction from where I had originally intended.

The piece opens with only a few instruments playing a very delicate tune. Slowly the music grows and expands to reach the first small climax. A slow and melancholy chorale in the low brass brings us back to a much softer place, answered by a very delicate and ethereal music in the percussion and woodwinds. Suddenly there is a brash interruption in the trumpets and saxophones, as though not content to stay in this soft, delicate place. The piece begins to grow into something much more bright and energetic with the entire ensemble gradually joining in.
By the end, the piece turns into a roaring celebration and the stillness that had begun the work is but a distant memory.

so faint a stillness remembered was commissioned by John Laverty and the Syracuse University Wind Ensemble, and the piece is dedicated to him and the students and staff of the Syracuse University Band department with much gratitude and admiration.

Premiered in Syracuse, New York, November 16, 2005
Setnor Auditorium, Syracuse University
Syracuse University Wind Ensemble, John Laverty, director

Changing Tides (2000)

i. Dew
ii. Cross Currents
iii. Still Waters
iv. Squall

Premiered in Rochester, New York, February 29, 2000
David Gilbert, conductor

Premiered by "Ossia" in Rochester, New York. October 8, 1997
Nicolas Scherzinger, conductor 

Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra
(1996-97) 

i. Out of the Darkness
ii. Rumble

Premiered in Rochester, New York, February 15, 1997
Robert Blaine, trombone soloist, Dr. John Marcellus, conductor.  

Shimmer (2006), for piano quintet, is influenced by a recent hike I took in the Syracuse area. One evening in early spring, shortly before sunset, I sat alone by a lake, completely surrounded by dark, tree-covered hills. As the sun began its final descent below the horizon, fewer and fewer beams of light found their way through the shadows of the trees. A light breeze wisp across the lake causing tiny ripples, and a shimmering dance of lights began on the surface of the lake. The sun slowly departed, and the flickering of lights gradually came to an end, leaving the lake a dark mirror. Although the piece is not specifically programmatic, Shimmer is a very much musical depiction of the images I witnessed that day. Shimmer is a single movement work of approximately 11 minutes and was commissioned by and is dedicated to the performers of the Meridian Phase II ensemble

Premiered at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, March 6, 2006.
Meridian Phase II ensemble.

Fractured Mirrors, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, was composed in the winter of 2004-2005. My initial goal was to compose an energetic and rhythmic piece that would be fun to play and that would feature the piano, but as I continued to work on the piece, the piano and other instruments became much more integrated. Thus, this piece is very much an ensemble piece, and each instrument is as important as the other. As is the case in most of my works, timbre and color play an important role in the development of the musical materials throughout the piece. The five instruments continually pass motives around in a kaleidoscopic manner. As the title suggests, another important element in the piece is the idea of a broken or fractured mirror. As I worked on the musical material, I imagined what it would be like to write some music and then reflect a page of that music onto a broken mirror. Music that had initially appeared continuous would now rematerialize in splintered fragments.

Fractured Mirrors was commissioned and premiered by the Society for New Music in 2005. The piece is dedicated to Steve Heyman, piano, and the Society for New Music with much admiration and gratitude.

Premiered in Syracuse, New York, March, 2005.
Society for New Music

I began working on Whisper in the fall of 2004 and my initial intent was to create a piece that was quiet and very intimate throughout, in other words, a "whisper" of a piece. As I began working on the music and as I began considering the different ways in which we whisper and it became clear to me that a "whisper" can have a variety of nuance and intensity, and this became the focus of my work. I have long admired the drive and energy that the “string quartet” can create. Thus, although this is a quiet piece, it is also very intense throughout. It is my hope that, just as one might struggle or strain to hear the specific details of a whisper, the listener will have to listen very intently to all the details that happen in this very quiet yet hopefully dramatic and energetic piece for string quartet.

Whisper was composed for the Cassatt String Quartet, and the piece is dedicated to them with thanks and admiration. It was premiered in Blacksburg, Virginia, on the Musica Viva! concert series on January 30, 2005.

Premiered in Blacksbourg, Virginia, January 30, 2005.
Cassatt String Quartet

This set of four songs for soprano and guitar is based on sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay. For the past few years I have wanted to write a piece for solo guitar for Ken Meyer, as well a song cycle for Janet Brown. It just so happens that when I talked to both Ken and Janet about the possibility of writing a set of songs for soprano and guitar, they immediately became very excited about the possibilities. Janet introduced the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay to me this summer and, after being immersed in much of her poetry, I found four sonnets that I thought would work particularly well for a song cycle. To me, the first song is about the sufferings of loss. There is a tone of overwhelming darkness that permeates throughout the text. The second and third songs have to do with time and how time is a source of tremendous agony as well as eventual relief. To me, the last song is an acknowledgment and acceptance of definitive truth. This is reflected in the final line of the sonnet, “till I become accustomed to the dark,” which expresses how each of us must learn to meet head-on the reality of loss and the darkness that accompanies it. When I first read this last line of text, I immediately knew that I had found the title for my song cycle. Many thanks go to both Ken and Janet, two masterful musicians and wonderful people, and these songs are dedicated to the two of them with admiration

for solo violin and chamber ensemble
(solo violin, flute, clarinet, harp,
2 violins, viola, cello)
Duration = Circa 11 minutes

click here for mp3 file

“…in the form of a dialogue.” This is the motivation behind Colloquy, for solo violin and chamber ensemble. Although this piece is very much a concertino for solo violin and chamber ensemble, rather than any recognizable distinction or struggle existing between the soloist and the ensemble, there is much more of a dialogue, an exchange of ideas, between them. In fact, all the music that the ensemble performs comes directly from the solo violin music.

Colloquy was composed for and premiered by Musica Nova under the direction of Bradley Lubman.

Premiered in Rochester, New York, October, 2002.
Musica Nova, Bradley Lubman director

Premiered by the Gardenia Trio,
Maria Cueva-Mendez, piano, Kimberly Persia, bassoon, and Marlen Vavrikova, oboe,
at the International Double Reed Society Conference, Banff, Alberta, Canada, August 9, 2002

for soprano saxophone and harp
Duration = Circa 13 minutes

click here for mp3 file

When Julia Nolan approached me about writing her a piece for saxophone and harp, my immediate impulse was to compose a work that would evoke some aspect of my youth. I have always been interested in the mysterious and ambiguous in music, and I can think of nothing more mysterious than a winter in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia where I grew up. From spring through fall, the dry, semi-desert climate of the region attracts people from all over the world who seek adventure in one of the most naturally beautiful places on earth. By late November, gray and dark clouds fall deep into the valley and snow lightly covers the land. The lake on the valley floor takes on a haunting blue-gray color, and the valley seems devoid of life. The valley remains this way until late March or early April, when the clouds begin to lift and gray turns back into vivid colors and life slowly returns.
Through a Winter Landscape takes the listener through a musical sound world very similar to the visual one described above. The work begins with the beautiful sonorities typical of the harp and the soprano saxophone. Eventually, these wonderfully bright colors fade away into the darker characteristics of the two instruments. The piece remains in darkness for quite some time, with both instruments struggling toward a light they eventually reach in the last moments of the piece. The music remains highly lyrical throughout.
Although during the composition of this piece I used the imagery of the Okanagan Valley of my youth as an inspiration for the composing of the piece, it is my hope that, in its musical form, the work will penetrate beyond our concrete realities into other “realities”. As in all my work, I am attracted to the mysterious in music because of its ability to draw us closer to something that is inexpressible. In many ways, this work portrays in music a winter landscape that I remember from my youth that I am incapable of depicting in words.
Through a Winter Landscape was commissioned by Julia Nolan with help from a grant from the Canada Council. The work was premiered by Julia Nolan, saxophone, and Rita Constanzi, harp, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on January 13, 2002, and is dedicated to them with thanks and admiration.

Commissioned by Julia Nolan and the Canada Council.
Premiered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, January 13, 2002.
Julia Nolan, saxophone, Rita Costanzi, Harp.

Elegy, for violin and piano was written in the spring of 2000 and was the last piece I composed as a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music. The work is essentially a brief, but very colorful ‘song’ for violin and piano. I have always been very interested in the use of color as an expressive musical device. When thematic and harmonic materials return, they are often altered in texture and timbre. Just as in life, the music never merely repeats itself, but instead goes through subtle changes. Elegy is a quiet and delicate piece, and though the violin has some arioso moments in the piece, the violin and piano essential work together as one.

Mirage, for alto saxophone and piano, is a short, single movement work that explores the visual effect of a mirage, but in an aural sound world. Musical ideas are continually shifting, appearing and then suddenly disappearing, producing effects of surrealism and distorted realities. By about the halfway point into the piece, both the saxophone and piano attempt to "attach" themselves to a single idea in hopes of solidifying reality. After an intense struggle, the opening "mirage-like" elements return and the piece "wisps" away.

Mirage is dedicated to my good friend, saxophonist Jon Gudmundson.

Premiered in Rochester, New York. April 23, 1998

Other chamber works:

Four Bagatelles for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1996)
   i. Utterance, ii. Crystals, iii. Meditation, iv. Outburst
Duration = Circa 15 minutes
Premiered in Rochester, New York. May 1997

Three Pieces for Brass Quintet (1994-95) revised 1999
   i. Mosaic, ii. Interlude, iii. Scherzo
for Brass Quintet: 2 C tpts, F hn, tbn, tba
Duration = Circa 15 minutes
Premiered at the Woolard Gallery, Rochester, NY, May 1999

Shadowed (2006) is a single movement piece of approximately eleven minutes for soprano saxophone and can be performed as a solo soprano saxophone piece, or with computer accompaniment (the preferred version). The computer listens to the pitch (frequency) of the saxophone throughout the performance for cues, leaving the saxophonist in complete control of the pacing of the piece. All the electro-acoustic sounds originate from the live saxophone sound; there are no pre-recorded sounds, and all the sounds from the computer are processed at close to real-time. Therefore, as the title suggests, the saxophonist is “shadowed” throughout the piece by the electro-acoustic sounds. Most of these sounds consist of delayed effects that are modulated or filtered. The computer also records the saxophonist during the performance and then plays back granulated samples near the end of the piece. Shadowed was commissioned by Randall Hall, who premiered the work at the 2006 North American Saxophone Alliance Conference in Iowa City, Iowa, and the piece is dedicated to him with admiration.

Premiered at the 2006 North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference,
Iowa City, Iowa, February, 2006.
Randall Hall, saxophone

for solo piano
Duration = Circa 7 minutes

click here for mp3 file

immoral minority was composed shortly after the 2005 United States presidential election and is a very personal response to the sequence of events that followed. On the morning after the election, I did what many other people in the United States did; I turned on the television to hear the election results. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by an interview of a woman who had voted for the now re-elected president. She shared with the reporter how ecstatic she was that “America had voted for morality,” thus insinuating that the only moral candidate was the incumbent, and that the 40 million plus American citizens who had voted for the other candidate were “immoral.” This piece is a result of the emotions and feelings that persisted in me for the next few days.

immoral minority was composed for and premiered by Adrienne Kim and the work is dedicated to her and the other 40 million plus American voters who suddenly became an immoral minority with one vote.

Premiered at the Aaron Copland School of Music, City University of New York, Samuel J. & Ethel Lefrak Concert Hall, Flushing, New York, on November 30, 2004.
Adrienne Kim, piano

3 improvisations for saxophone and interactive computer
Duration = circa 15 minutes

mp3 file available soon

Schism (2003) is a set of three improvisations for saxophone and interactive computer. The major difference between "Schism" and many traditional works that combine live instruments with electronics is the fact that in these works the computer and the performer interact with one another in real time. Each piece consists of a collection of pitch materials and special effects that the saxophonist improvises freely with. The computer reacts to the saxophonist producing a series of sounds based on what the saxophonist plays. The computer is also capable of creating random elements throughout a work, thus allowing the saxophonist to react to the computer. The interactive computer environment is designed to maximize flexibility in performance to generate, layer, and route musical material with the same improvisational freedom that one might develop with a purely acoustic instrument. Thus, each performance of the piece will vary slightly.
The technical setup for "Schism" is relatively simple. One needs a saxophone, a microphone, a computer capable of running MAX/MSP, an audio interface with input and stereo output, and a pair of speakers.

Many of the sounds generated by the computer come directly from digital signal processing algorithms that manipulate the live sound from the saxophone. The saxophone sound (signal) is sent directly into the computer, where pitch, amplitude, and overtones are detected by the computer interface. Specified orders of pitches and/or extended techniques then determine the types of sounds that the computer will produce.

At the core of these pieces is the interface that I developed using the MAX/MSP environment. This interface coordinates MIDI continuous control messages from the signal data from the saxophone (pitch, amplitude, and overtone detection) - mapping them into real-time performance processes. The interface encompasses numerous palettes of live-sampled sounds, interactive compositional and mixing algorithms, and live digital signal processing algorithms for harmonization, modulation, comb filtering, various delays, and granular synthesis. Some of these digital signal processes draw on the PeRColate externals, a collection of MSP externals developed by Dan Trueman and Luke DuBois, with additional credit to Miller Puckette for his pitch and attack detection externals.

Commissioned and premiered by Randall Hall, saxophone,
World Saxophone Congress, Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 12, 2003.

for solo viola and electronic sounds
(CD playback)
Duration = Circa 8 minutes

click here for mp3 file

Calico Dances is a “dance” for solo viola and electronic sounds (CD playback). Rather than being a suite of separate dance movements, this piece is presented as a continuous work in which the viola “dances” in juxtaposition to the electronic sounds. The result is a musical patchwork.

Calico Dances was written for John Graham and the work is dedicated to him with thanks and admiration.

Premiered in Rochester, New York, February, 2002.
John Graham, viola

for alto saxophone and electronic music
(CD playback)
Duration = circa 13 minutes

click here for mp3 file

Solitude, for alto saxophone with electronic music (CD playback), explores the concept of being alone, separated from society. The saxophone represents the individual, while the electronic sounds portray society. Throughout the piece, the saxophone seeks solitude. An unavoidable conflict arises when the individual realizes that everything it has ever known originates from the very society from which it is struggling to escape. In the end, the question still remains: is solitude, that is, complete separation from society, truly achievable? Does the saxophone find a way to exist separately from the electronic sounds, or are the two forced to find a way to integrate together?
Solitude was commissioned and premiered by my good friend Randall Hall and the work is dedicated to him with admiration.

Performed by Randall Hall, saxophone, in Rochester, New York (premiere, February 2001), Gent, Belgium and Luxembourg (March 2001).

Premiered in Rochester, New York, April 1999

Premiered by Kristen Tait, Rochester, New York, May 1997
Additional Performance in Banff, Alberta, Canada. October 1997

Composed for, dedicated to, and premiered by Jeffrey Gilliam,
Bellingham, WA. Feb. 1993

Other solo works:

5 Etudes for Alto Saxophone (1998-99)
Duration = circa 8 minutes
Premiered at the Woolard Gallery, Rochester, NY, April 1999

Dual Personality (1996)
for solo Alto Saxophone
Duration = Circa 8 minutes
Premiered in Rochester, New York. May 1997

for soprano and guitar
Text by Edna St.Vincent Millay
Duration: circa 18 minutes

mp3 files (click below)
song#1-mp3file
song#2-mp3file
song#3-mp3file
song#4-mp3file

This set of four songs for soprano and guitar is based on the sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay. For the past few years I have wanted to write a piece for solo guitar for Ken Meyer, as well a song cycle for Janet Brown. It just so happens that when I talked to both Ken and Janet about the possibility of writing a set of songs for soprano and guitar, they immediately became very excited about the possibilities. Janet introduced the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay to me this summer and, after being immersed in much of her poetry, I found four sonnets that I thought would work particularly well for a song cycle. To me, the first song is about the sufferings of loss. There is a tone of overwhelming darkness that permeates throughout the text. The second and third songs have to do with time and how time is a source of tremendous agony as well as eventual relief. To me, the last song is an acknowledgment and acceptance of the definitive truth. This is reflected in the final line of the sonnet, “till I become accustomed to the dark,” which expresses how each of us must learn to meet head-on the reality of loss and the darkness that accompanies it. When I first read this last line of text, I immediately knew that I had found the title for my song cycle. Many thanks go to both Ken and Janet, two masterful musicians and wonderful people, and these songs are dedicated to the two of them with admiration.

for mezzo-soprano and piano
(also available for tenor and piano, and soprano and piano)
Text by Arthur Bly

Tenor version premiered at the Woolard Gallery, Rochester NY, April 1999

Commissioned by and performed by the Salem Chancel Choir,
Premiered at the Salem Church of Christ, Rochester, NY, March 1997

Premiered in Bellingham, Wa., The Western Washington University Chamber Players, Roger Briggs, conductor.

Shadowed (2006)

see solo instrumental above

Schism (2003)

see solo instrumental above

Calico Dances (2002)

see solo instrumental above

Film with electronic music
Jack Beck, filmmaker
Nicolas Scherzinger, composer
Duration = circa 3 1/2 minutes

Performed at SUNY Brockport, Brockport, New York, April 7, 2001
and at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, April 15, 2001

Solitude (2001)

see solo instrumental above

Other electronic works:

Tui (2000)
Film with electronic music
Jack Beck, filmmaker; Nicolas Scherzinger, composer
Duration = circa 17 minutes
Performed at SUNY Brockport, Brockport, New York, April 16, 2000

Niagara (1999)
Film with electronic music
Jack Beck, filmmaker; Nicolas Scherzinger, composer
Duration = circa 5 minutes
Premiered at SUNY Brockport, Brockport, New York, April 1999

Reflections on Water (1995)
electronic music
Duration = 9 minutes