Creative Works

I wear many hats as a musician—conductor, teacher, writer, lecturer—but it is my work as a composer that has had perhaps the most far reaching impact. My compositions have been performed around the Puget Sound region and across the country by high school, college, youth, church and community choirs, and the score of at least one piece has been carried overseas to Iceland! I bring well-honed skills to my choral compositions due to my depth of experience as a choral conductor and singer, and my instinctive, deeply ingrained sensitivity to the rhythm and beauty of words. And I sometimes unleash a sense of humor and playfulness in my work that reveals my joy in music and makes my pieces a delight to sing.

My dissertation and authored articles are a newer area of interest, and I find the task of writing immensely satisfying, especially when writing of musical allegory in Bach's cantatas. The articles can be found in college music libraries or at each journal's web site, and my dissertation is available for free at the link below.

Compositions-a sampling:

If you are interested in perusal copies, please contact me.

Christmas

Angels We Have Heard on High, SATB/SSAA a capella, Santa Barbara Music Publishing
Angelus ad virginem, SATB and percussion
A Virgin Most Pure, SATB a capella
Children, Go Where I Send Thee, SATB a capella; African American spiritual
Children's Song of the Nativity, SATB and piano; setting of a poem by Frances Chesterton
Gaudete, SATB and percussion
Il est né, le divin Enfant, SATB and percussion-YouTube link
Masters In This Hall, SATB and piano-YouTube link
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming, SATB a capella
O Magnum Mysterium, SATB + Sop solo
The Nutcracker Miniature Overture: A Choral Transcription, SATB a capella
Sing We Now of Christmas, SATB, percussion and brass ensemble

Sacred

Crossing the Bar, SATB a capella; a setting of the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Furry Day Carol, SATB a capella
How Firm a Foundation, SATB and piano; arrangement of the early American hymn. For the Bellevue Presbyterian Church Summer Choir
I Got a Home In-a That Rock, SATB and piano; African American spiritual. For the Bellevue Presbyterian Church Summer Choir
Rorate, SATB a capella, traditional Scottish melody
Weeping Mary, SATB a capella; arrangement of a 19th-century American hymn

Secular

Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms, SATB and piano
Grizz-e-ly Bear, SATB and piano
If Ever Two Were One, SATB a capella, setting of a poem by Anne Bradstreet, commissioned by Annas Bay Music Festival
Londonderry Air, SATB/SATB a capella
My Lagan Love, SATB + baritone solo a capella
Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie, SAB, a capella
The Glendy Burk, SATB arrangement of a Stephen Foster song
The Star of the County Down, SATB a capella
Take Me Out to the Ball Game, SATB a capella and audience
Things That Go Bump in the Night, SATB and piano
William Tell Overture a la Swingle Singers, SATB a capella

Original Creations:

A Choral Christmas Carol

A Journey with Lewis and Clark

Writings:

"The Seen and the Unseen: Hidden Allegorical Links in the Trinity Season Chorale Cantatas of J.S. Bach." DMA dissertation, University of Washington, 2008.

"Hidden Allegory in J.S. Bach's 1724 Trinity Season Chorale Cantatas." Choral Journal, (August 2010): 6-17.

"Conductor's Notes: Imagining the Stage." The Voice of Chorus America 33, no. 2 (Winter 2010): 8.