Bela Bartok
Ludwig van Beethoven
Alban Berg
Elliott Carter
Miles Davis
Claude Debussy
Morton Feldman
Charles Ives
Erik Satie
Ervin Schulhoff
Stephen Siegel
Igor Stravinsky
Toru Takemitsu
Michael Tippett
Richard Wagner
Eberhard Weber
I was born in New Hampshire in 1976. I've written pieces for the Hartt 20/20 Ensemble, the Miklos Quartet, the Sage City Symphony, the Hartt Community Division Suzuki Guitar Orchestra, and the Holberg Chamber Orchestra, among others. My compositions have received performances and readings from a diverse range of ensembles and instrumentalists, including the Composers Quartet, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, clarinetist Alan Kay, the strings of the Albany Symphony, and the late, great composer-trumpeter Raphé Malik.
I'm currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in composition at Stony Brook University in New York. My previous studies were at the Hartt School of Music (M.M. 2006, A.D. 2007) and Bennington College (B.A. 1998).
I also enjoy writing about music, and have written reviews and feature articles for the Hartford Courant and Masstransfer magazine, among other publications. Most recently, I have contributed analyses to the revised edition of Julian Palacios's book Syd Barrett: Lost in the Woods, to be published in the U.K. in November 2008, and in the U.S. in May 2009.
About the music:
Written for the unusual combination of oboe, viola, harp, and piano (doubling celesta), The Heart That Loves But Once takes its title from a passage in a letter written to Robert Schumann by his future wife, Clara Wieck, at a time when their romance seemed without hope of fulfillment:
"You will hear so many things of me, many a doubt will arise in your mind when you learn of this or that, but then think to yourself -- She does all that for me: Could you ever waver? Well -- then you would have broken a heart that loves but once."
Robert Schumann's work was certainly a major inspiration in writing this piece, and I owe much to Prof. Ira Braus, whose wit and wisdom have profoundly illuminated Schumann's music, for me and for many others. I also count Tom (Alphonse) Izzo's remarkable composition "Wunderkammer" as an important influence. My piece was written at the request of the Hartt School's 20/20 ensemble, and features 20/20 members Charles Huang (oboe), Andrew Knebel (viola), Annabelle Taubl (harp), and Yu-Chen Shih (piano/celesta). The recording here is taken from a studio session in late February 2007, about two weeks before the premiere.
Donizetti at Ivry was composed as part of Momentum, a concert at the Hartt School that was advertised with the following tagline:
"One hour to compose -- one hour to rehearse -- one hour to perform"
At 1:00 p.m. on the day of the concert (April 28, 2007), each of the participating composers received a phone call telling us the musicians we'd been assigned, based on a random drawing. Composers had until 3:00 p.m. to write the piece, prepare score and parts, and drive to campus for rehearsal; the concert was at 5:00 p.m. (No one missed the deadline, believe it or not!)
I'm deeply grateful to the three excellent musicians who made this piece happen: Aaron Packard (violin), Han-Wei Lu (violoncello), and Dan Merriman (double bass). As for the title, when I wrote the piece I had just been reading of the sad end of composer Gaetano Donizetti, a witty and lively man who spent his last years in a catatonic state at Ivry in France, terminally ill and far from home.
Abandoned Beach dates from the winter of 2005, and was composed using the synthesis and sound design program Metasynth.
The Nocturne was first performed by Luiza Aquino at the Hartt School in April 2005. It was written for, and dedicated to, pianist Muriel Palmer of Bennington, VT.
Dear Phil, thank you very much for adding me. You made such a beautiful, romatic and calm musik - wunderful. Thank you for the download of The Heard... and Abandoned Beach (my favored track!) Respect and my best regards from Hamburg / Germany
I truly admire your music and the depth of knowledge you bring to our little musical niche. The Nocturne sounds better every time I hear it
and the Adagio is wonderful. I look forward to hearing much, much more.
