Solo Works

Epigrams was composed in March and April of 1995 for my teacher, David Neubert. It is cast in four short movements, each of which explores a different facet of the double bass. The first movement exploits the lyrical and rhapsodic potentials of the instrument; the second fast notes and rapid double stop passages. The third movement takes advantage of the coloristic possibilities of the instrument, especially the varieties of pizzacato and harmonics, while the fourth movement is a study in velocity and chromatic writing.

Interlude (homage to Beethoven) was composed in July 2016 as part of a project by Susanne Kessel to assemble a tapestry of 250 pieces in honor of Beethoven’s 250th birthday in 2020.

For my contribution, I created a brief interlude intended to be performed between the two movements of Beethoven’s final Piano Sonata, Opus 111. The second movement of Opus 111 is a theme and variations, and my Interlude is essentially a bonus variation on Beethoven’s theme, but in my compositional language. Marked “Freely, mystical”, it transforms Beethoven’s theme into a coloristic reverie. It almost exclusively inhabits the upper registers of the piano, except for three notes, which trace the outline of the main theme from the first movement of Opus 111. The intent is to frame the Beethoven and to provide a reflection across the two centuries since it was composed, pivoting out of the first movement into a contemporary musical world and making the opening of the second movement sound as fresh as it did in his day.

Interlude is dedicated to Susanne Kessel in appreciation of her sensitive musicianship and support of living composers.

In 2007, my good friend and frequent collaborator, the violinist Peter Stein, was asked to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto with an orchestra in Bonn, Germany. He asked me if I would compose new cadenzas for his performance, and I gladly accepted the challenge. It was an intriguing project — how to connect my compositional style with Beethoven’s in a way not just to create a shock but to have my compositional voice emerge from his music — to take the listener on a series of detours that led from 19th-Century Vienna to 21st-Century Los Angeles, and back again.

Snapshots was composed between 2000 and 2005. I was asked to write a set of character pieces for the piano. Searching for a unifying theme, I gravitated to the most obvious and basic fact about the piano – its division into white notes and black notes. Thus was born a set of pieces in which each in some way pits the white notes of the piano against the black notes. Originally composed in three distinct sets, the Snapshots were combined into a larger whole in 2009 as the result of a recording project with the pianist Markus Pawlik. The set may be performed as a whole, or subsets of the Snapshots may be performed at the pianist’s discretion. Two of the original sets were composed as the result of commissions from the Virginia Music Teachers’ Association (2000, numbers IV, V, VII, X, XI, XIV, XVI, XVIII, XIX) and California Music Teachers’ Association (2005, numbers VI, VIII, XII, XIII, XV, XVII, XX, XI, XII), and they were composed to address a range of styles and technical challenges. The middle set was composed for the high school level of the Renee B. Fisher Competition (2003, numbers I, II, III, and IX) and explores a range of technical and musical challenges at a higher level.

Snapshots was composed between 2000 and 2005. I was asked to write a set of character pieces for the piano. Searching for a unifying theme, I gravitated to the most obvious and basic fact about the piano – its division into white notes and black notes. Thus was born a set of pieces in which each in some way pits the white notes of the piano against the black notes. Originally composed in three distinct sets, the Snapshots were combined into a larger whole in 2009 as the result of a recording project with the pianist Markus Pawlik. The set may be performed as a whole, or subsets of the Snapshots may be performed at the pianist’s discretion. Two of the original sets were composed as the result of commissions from the Virginia Music Teachers’ Association (2000, numbers IV, V, VII, X, XI, XIV, XVI, XVIII, XIX) and California Music Teachers’ Association (2005, numbers VI, VIII, XII, XIII, XV, XVII, XX, XI, XII), and they were composed to address a range of styles and technical challenges. The middle set was composed for the high school level of the Renee B. Fisher Competition (2003, numbers I, II, III, and IX) and explores a range of technical and musical challenges at a higher level.