Composer
Program Notes Earth Speaks is a large 45-minute choral work that explores different perspectives on our earth through the lens of three Pasadena institutions. It was commissioned by Pasadena Master Chorale in 2015. The first section looks at the earth through the lens of California’s Native Americans. After an exhaustive search for poetry from the Tongva … Read more
Program Notes Nadia Anjuman (1980-2005) was a brilliant young Afghan poet whose life was tragically cut short, as she was brutally murdered by her own husband at the age of 25. Many of her poems express her feelings of being censored and unable to say what is in her mind and heart– something she was … Read more
Program Notes Carol Muske-Dukes’s poem, White Key, evokes the feeling of suspension. A woman makes the difficult journey by plane back to her home after receiving the news of her husband’s sudden death. As she is suspended in the air between two cities, she is also suspended between two lives, between a beautiful past and the uncertain … Read more
Program Notes It is difficult for me to find something insightful to say about a piece that is so close to my heart. I think Rilke’s text says it best. Recording This is a recording of the original version of Two Tones, for soprano, violin and piano. The tenor/cello version has not been recorded yet. … Read more
Program Notes It is difficult for me to find something insightful to say about a piece that is so close to my heart. I think Rilke’s text says it best. Recording This is a recording of the original version of Two Tones, for soprano, violin and piano. The oboe/English horn version has not been recorded … Read more
Program Notes It is difficult for me to find something insightful to say about a piece that is so close to my heart. I think Rilke’s text says it best. Recording Text Everything that touches us, me and you,Takes us together like a violin’s bowWhich draws one voice out of two separate stringsUpon what instrument … Read more
Program Notes It is difficult for me to find something insightful to say about a piece that is so close to my heart. I think Rilke’s text says it best. Recording Text Everything that touches us, me and you,Takes us together like a violin’s bowWhich draws one voice out of two separate stringsUpon what instrument … Read more
Program Notes Here are the original program notes for this work, written in 2006: The first time I encountered “A Ritual to Read to Each Other” was five years before I wrote this piece, on September 10th, 2001. I remember the date primarily because it marked the first class of my freshman year at Juilliard … Read more
Program Notes (Unfortunate Coincidence is an early work – I wrote it when I was 22 years old and studying at the Juilliard School) Dorothy Parker’s often ironic poetry is a reflection of her existence: she often expressed a penchant for death, attempting suicide multiple times, and yet she lived to the age of 74. … Read more