My 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.

"J.S. Bach's Second Cycle Chorale Cantatas: More Than Meets the Ear!" Paper presented at the College Music Society Northwest Conference, April 2010.