blog

20 mar 2013, Artigo
Advice to High School Students About Studying Composition - Part I
I got in touch with an old friend this weekend who has a high schooler considering studying composition in college. He asked me for some advice; the following is an elaboration of the brief advice I gave him. My advice is based on several observations. First, if you write music--no matter what training or education you've had--you are a composer. A degree doesn't make you composer, writing music makes you a composer. Having a degree in composition doesn't make you good composer--and it ...

27 abr 2012, Artigo
North Dakota Plays Jazz!
Fargo North HS Jazz Ensemble (Fargo, ND), under the direction of John Syverson, has signed on to perform 2 of my new jazz ensemble compositions this fall. Stay tuned for performance dates and details. John's band has previously performed several of my orchestrations for jazz ensemble, including some heavy hitters like "Some Skunk Funk" and "La Fiesta". This is a mean ensemble!