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Quiet Rhythms No. 9 for Accordion and Marimba (2010)

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Originally for solo piano, Quiet Rhythms No. 9 is an arrangement for accordion and marimba created in 2021. Quiet Rhythms No. 9 is one of forty-four pieces in the series. Each piece is divided into two sections, a Prologue and an Action.

The first performance was given by Brett Jones, marimba and Stas Venglevski, piano on January 25, 2022 in Superior, Wisconsin.

Loud Harmonies - Book I (2024)

Instrumentation: piano (70 minutes)
Loud Harmonies is a series of short piano pieces that are written in pairs consisting of a Prologue and Action. Book I contains Loud Harmonies Nos. 1 - 11.

A set of 22 piano pieces. 11 Prologues and 11 Actions.

Unlike the series Quiet Rhythms which often did not veer from the mid-range of the piano with soft dynamics and somewhat static harmonic patterns, Loud Harmonies focuses on extremes of dynamics, the upper and lower register of the piano and bright, bold chords and gestures. Where Quiet Rhythms was introverted and inward-looking, Loud Harmonies is extroverted and outward-looking placing greater demands on the pianist.




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The Heavens Above for Two Brass Quintets (2023)

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Instrumentation: 2 trpt, hn, tbn, tuba and 2 trpt, hn, tbn, tuba (6:15)

Commissioned and premiered in 1998 by The Tuolumne Brass, a San Francisco brass quintet active in the 1990s.

This new version for two brass quintets (2023) plays off the antiphonal nature of the Renaissance brass music of Giovanni Gabrieli that he composed for the architecture of the Cathedral of San Marco in Venice.

Fordlandia (2024)

Fordlandia is a family drama about the struggle between Henry Ford and his son, Edsel, over the leadership and future of Ford Motor Company. It sheds light on the tragic and dysfunctional family life of the most transgressive businessman of the 20th century and America’s first true business disruptor. Henry's inability to relinquish the control of his company to a son he loves dearly destroys Edsel emotionally and physically. The tragedy between father and son is only mitigated by the strength and actions of their wives.

Aria (2013)

Aria is lifted from a larger work, an opera-in-progress, called Fordlandia, about the struggle for succession of power between Henry and his son Edsel at the Ford Motor Company. Evangeline, the secretary and mistress of Henry Ford, sings the aria. In this five-part work for violin and piano, we hear Evangeline’s Aria, an expression of love and triumph, at the end in the fifth and final section. The four sections that lead up to the finale imagine a dialogue and interaction about their complicated relationship.

String Quartet No. 4: Zydeco Madness (2006)

Instrumentation: 2 vns, vla, vc

Duration: 9:30

To the forgotten of Hurricane Katrina.

Zydeco is Creole-based music indigenous to Louisiana. The lead instrument of a Zydeco band is accordion and the music itself over the years has integrated a wide variety of popular music forms. Rather than trying to copy the sound or instrumentation of a Zydeco band, the emphasis is on rhythm.