Since the beginning of my introspective exile, I’ve been keeping myself busy both writing music and writing about music. Most of my composition time has been spent working on a completely digital suite of music which I’m calling Electric Fall. I’m pleased to announce that this suite is finished and I am proud to premiere

I believe that we are at a crossroads in music education, one that will determine how and why students learn and study music in the next few decades and that decisions made today will strongly impact the next 50 years in our field.                The rise and influence of digital music making, cuts to the

Where do I begin? It’s been almost four years since my last blog entry and so much has happened in the meantime. For a host of reasons, my webpage has fallen off the radar and gone fallow, and I’m pleased to say that I’ve been able to rid the site of any malware that had

Happy Halloween! As I’m writing this blog post, I’m listening to one of my favorite pieces of “eerie” music, Aaron Copland’s one-act ballet score for Grohg. I first encountered this work as an undergraduate at Shenandoah Conservatory. The orchestra was playing this piece in its reworked form by the composer as his Dance Symphony and

Fall is in the air and day by day we are gloriously easing into my favorite time of year. The cooler temperatures, bright colors, and sense of anticipation that autumn brings really makes me feel grateful to be alive. You can talk about spring bringing renewal all you like, but to me, the true season

It’s late August and like many of you, I’ve been easing back into a sense of normalcy as the fall semester began albeit with some very new procedures. I’ve been impressed by my students as they have taken to wearing masks in class and following social distancing guidelines with seemingly no difficulty. Their flexibility and

Like many of you, travelling this summer for me has been a non-starter. Just when it seemed like it was going to be safe to drive somewhere close by for a short getaway, covid-19 cases began to rise again and it just felt safer to stay put. So, while I missed a traditional vacation this

The summer is plugging away, and even though it’s not a normal summer by any means, I appreciate the rhythm and quasi-normalcy that this season brings. In a few days we will celebrate Independence Day and while I enjoy the holiday for many of the same reasons that you do, it has become to signify,

Recently I’ve been thinking about resilience. Webster’s defines resilience as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” By necessity, musicians develop resilience as a skill to help with the rigors of the practice room or to cope with the rejection that sometimes comes with the territory. As music educators, we