Key Notes
Found this amazing little park just a few streets away from my home - Portland is truly a lovely place to live and get inspired!
Quick Updates
It has been wonderful to take some time away from the internet to write, explore more of Portland, and prepare for the upcoming season - and I’m looking forward to sharing more about what I’ve been up to in upcoming posts!
Upcoming Performance - Grand Teton Music Festival!
I am SO EXCITED to be traveling to the Grand Teton Music Festival at the end of the month to hear a performance of Just Another Climb, and couldn’t be more thrilled to hear the work next to the very mountains that inspired the piece! You can find more information about this performance on the Upcoming Performances tab!
Flash Sale on Commissions - This Week Only!
I’m currently running a flash sale on commissions until 11:59pm PT on Friday, July 16th! I’m offering discounts on a huge array of chamber music commissions, and would love to help you fill out your repertoire for the upcoming season! You can read more on pricing and the discounts available on the Chamber Music Pricing page, though the discounts also apply to pre-collegiate chamber works. Even if you’d like to schedule the writing period for later this year, reach out this week to take advantage of the discount! I look forward to working with you!
Recently Completed Works!
Recently completed works include the final movements for Power, Speed, Grace, and Grit, which will premiere later this year! This multi-movement work for oboe and brass quintet is inspired by Olympic athletes Dominique Dawes (gymnastics), Gertrude Ederle (swimming), Michelle Kwan (figure skating), and Wilma Rudolph (sprinting). I wrote about the first few movements here, but am so excited to share the rest of this athletic work!
I have also just finished the final touches on a substantial new work for flute and cello, inspired by the children’s book “My Father’s Dragon” (you can read more about it in the blog post linked above). The work is ambitious not only in its duration (about 30 minutes in total!!), but also for its engineered flexibility—giving the performers seven different ways to perform the work! In addition to the text adaptation and the multiple format, I have a lot to say about crafting different characters and creating a musical, narrative arc over such a long period of time; there’s a lot to talk about, and I am so eager to share this work with all of you soon!
More on these soon, but for now, on to Key Notes!
Key Notes
The three works from Key Notes
I think it’s tempting to see pianists as more or less interchangeable—some of them even play on the exact same instruments, so as long as they are at a similar technical level there isn’t a big difference in sound, right? At the end of the day, a piano is still a piano.
In my experience, however, this couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve heard feedback from pianists ranging from “all piano music should feel like this” to “you should probably never go near a piano again”—and both of those comments were reactions to the same piece! I don’t know how many people realize that pianists encompass a range as varied and specific as vocalists.
This section from Thump was meant to imitate bell tolls. While I still enjoy thick, contrapuntal textures in piano music, I like to think my writing has improved a lot since this 2014 work!
My first extensive work for piano was my operetta, Thump, and my writing for piano has been rather orchestral ever since—percussive and driving rhythmic sections, hands acting as separate instruments, incorporating the extremes of the instrument, and using lots of lush chords and rolls. There are some pianists who have really responded well to this type of writing, and others that see my work as basically impossible. I haven’t really found pianists in the later category to be obstinate or close-minded, but rather their playing style and approach to the instrument is just so fundamentally different from my own it makes it a challenge to adjust to one another.
While I can’t change my natural inclinations completely, I have long been interested in seeing how I can learn to incorporate different types of textures and gestures in a solo piano context. Thus, Key Notes—a commissioning series specifically for solo piano. Over the course of the last month, I’ve worked with three different pianists to write new works: one for a concert of works about political and social topics, one for students that incorporates improvisation, and one for an upcoming album that the commissioner graciously let me dedicate to a loved one. I’m so excited to share more about these new works, the pianists, and what I’ve learned!
While I had a blast hiking, baking, writing, exploring, and dreaming up the next set of projects, it’s also great to be back at the desk and chatting with commissioners, schools, teachers, and fellow music-makers. Having spent the last few weeks out in the world, it’s time to get back to creating ones of my own! Happy music-making, everyone!!
