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CD Release!

Check out Agents of Espionage, the new album by the amazing clarinetist Brian Viliunas, on the Potenza Music label! The album features new works by Zachary James Bramble, Ryan Springler, and yours truly! Other artists joining Brian Viliunas include Jeffrey Flaniken (violin), Donald Sanders (piano) and Kathryn Fouse (piano).

A Most Productive Summer at the Farmhouse

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Rhonda and Stan Haught, my wife's aunt and uncle, for hosting us at their farmhouse in rural West Virginia these past several weeks. I am very excited about the new chamber music I have written during this artist's mini-sabbatical. There's Particles II for woodwind quintet and piano. There's Outside the Bluebird, a work that combines "classical" instruments (clarinet, bassoon, marimba...) with roots country instruments (resonator guitar, Appalachian dulcimer). And there's a new percussion quartet for Birmingham, Alabama group Iron Giant. Add to that an upcoming performance in New York City as part of the Circuit Bridges concert series... performances on the Birmingham New Music Festival... it's been a productive summer!

Upcoming Performances by SoundProof Ensemble

The performance ensemble SoundProof (Patricia Strange, violin; Stephen Ruppenthal, trumpet; Brian Belet, viola and electronics) will include my new one-minute composition Impervious, written specifically for the ensemble, on the "15 Minutes of Fame" portion of their Fall 2012 Midwest Tour. The competition was hosted by Vox Novus.
I crammed a lot of music into my one minute. Impervious is the single climactic arc of an obsessive, asymmetrical rhythmic idea. Electronics were based on my voice and processed using Pure Data and SoundHack, plus analog synthesis. The trumpet is featured in half-valve, growl, and wah-wah effects, while the violin and viola use whispering sul ponticello technique.

Definiens plays my Tangle in L.A.

Kudos and gratitude to the Definiens Project in Los Angeles for their July 1 premiere of my Tangle: An Off-Kilter Tango for flute, English horn, violin and cello. I have to say I'm thrilled with the results; they really played it beautifully! The performance was at Hope UMC in Torrance, CA. You can see the video here. 
The Definiens Project have been great friends and allies, promoting and repeatedly performing my Blugue for reed trio and now giving the premiere of this newest of my chamber pieces.