about
I make creative sound projects with others. My preferred labels oscillate from sound artist to composer, from mentor to teacher, from dreamer to maker. I am passionate about my creative work and that work is never mine alone; it is collaborative, exploratory, constantly evolving and rooted in dialogue – in exchange. My recent endeavors cross disciplines, media, and vocabularies – but all derive some amount of meaning from the artist(s) who realize the work and the role of the performing body. Narrative environment scores [triggered multimedia and live performer(s)] function as evolving aural/visual spaces in which performers speak, sing, play, and move. Fully staged and choreographed productions (like those created with Mark Dechiazza and Spektral Quartet, as well as the International Contemporary Ensemble) integrate physical and sounding gestures into thematic and developing materials. My sounding sculptures require percussionists to move and listen and be playful in order to perform the compositions. The installations I create are meant to be enveloping, with participants moving throughout to find their own tempo, story, resonance, space. And my stage works include physical and narrative instructions as integral elements to the scores.
My creative life is multidimensional, as I work with amazing artists who challenge, inspire, and enrich both my process and my art. These artist have included the International Contemporary Ensemble, Spectral Quartet, Mark DeChiazza, The American Composers Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Collect/Project, Chris Graham, Shanna Pranaitis, Iktus Percussion Quartet, Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Illinois Modern Ensemble, Eric KM Clark, the New England Guitar Quartet, Hannah Addario-Berry, the NODES Project, Coalescence Percussion Duo, Brian McOmber, Violin Futura, Navitas, the Machine Project for the Hammer Museum of Los Angeles and the California E.A.R. Unit. I have been fortunate to learn and grow with fellowships and residencies from Hartt School, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Other Minds Festival. But there is more beyond these wonderful artists and environments that inform my creative life…
Teaching also informs my creative research, as I listen to and learn from the student artists I mentor. These students keep me researching and learning, they keep me open, they challenge me to occupy different perspectives, and they inspire me through the sharing of their voices. As an Associate Professor of Composition at Western Michigan University, I am fortunate to work with students at various levels of their artistic development, with widely varying voices and goals. Connectedly, I also work at times with wonderful outreach programs like SEMINAR summer camp for high schoolers, Portage Public Schools’ Orchestra Program, and, most recently, the amazing Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra Mosaic Scholars program. Each of these endeavors keeps me questioning, learning, growing, and expanding my vocabularies (those tools for teaching and those for creative expression). Each of these endeavors reminds me to stay grateful and to stay engaged.
This is what I love, what I make, where I find inspiration and what I do right now.*
*Please note that all above is subject to change.
My creative life is multidimensional, as I work with amazing artists who challenge, inspire, and enrich both my process and my art. These artist have included the International Contemporary Ensemble, Spectral Quartet, Mark DeChiazza, The American Composers Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Collect/Project, Chris Graham, Shanna Pranaitis, Iktus Percussion Quartet, Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Illinois Modern Ensemble, Eric KM Clark, the New England Guitar Quartet, Hannah Addario-Berry, the NODES Project, Coalescence Percussion Duo, Brian McOmber, Violin Futura, Navitas, the Machine Project for the Hammer Museum of Los Angeles and the California E.A.R. Unit. I have been fortunate to learn and grow with fellowships and residencies from Hartt School, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Other Minds Festival. But there is more beyond these wonderful artists and environments that inform my creative life…
Teaching also informs my creative research, as I listen to and learn from the student artists I mentor. These students keep me researching and learning, they keep me open, they challenge me to occupy different perspectives, and they inspire me through the sharing of their voices. As an Associate Professor of Composition at Western Michigan University, I am fortunate to work with students at various levels of their artistic development, with widely varying voices and goals. Connectedly, I also work at times with wonderful outreach programs like SEMINAR summer camp for high schoolers, Portage Public Schools’ Orchestra Program, and, most recently, the amazing Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra Mosaic Scholars program. Each of these endeavors keeps me questioning, learning, growing, and expanding my vocabularies (those tools for teaching and those for creative expression). Each of these endeavors reminds me to stay grateful and to stay engaged.
This is what I love, what I make, where I find inspiration and what I do right now.*
*Please note that all above is subject to change.
reviews and publications
SEAMUS 2023 Album - "Chimera's Garden" performed by Shanna Pranaitis will be featured on this year's peer-reviewed SEAMUS 2023 Album, published by SEAMUS. upcoming
New York Times review by Vivien Schweitzer of "Vera's Ghosts" performed by the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel in Carnegie Hall on Feb 20, 2014. Descents into Sounds of Dementia and War.
San Francisco Examiner review by Stephen Smoliar of "Isolation" performed by the Magik*Magik Orchestra and conducted by John Kennedy as part of the Old First Concerts Series in San Francisco, CA on Feb 8, 2014. The Magik*Magik Orchestra Showcases The Collected at Old First Church.
New York Times review by Steve Smith of "Cythére (a trauma ballet in two parts)" performed by the Calder Quartet at the MATA Festival. Music with and without Musicians.
New York Times review by Steve Smith of "Cross-Sections: Four Pieces for Electric Guitar Quartet" from Dither, the 2010 album from Dither Quartet on the Henceforth Record Label. Go Electric.
Civic Center Blog review by Michael Strickland of the premiere of "Music Painted from Memory" by the Navitas Ensemble at Other Minds 16. Civic Center.
Point of Departure Magazine review by Stuart Boomer of "Cross-Sections: Four Pieces for Electric Guitar Quartet" from Dither. Moment's Notice.
New York Times review by Vivien Schweitzer of "Vera's Ghosts" performed by the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel in Carnegie Hall on Feb 20, 2014. Descents into Sounds of Dementia and War.
San Francisco Examiner review by Stephen Smoliar of "Isolation" performed by the Magik*Magik Orchestra and conducted by John Kennedy as part of the Old First Concerts Series in San Francisco, CA on Feb 8, 2014. The Magik*Magik Orchestra Showcases The Collected at Old First Church.
New York Times review by Steve Smith of "Cythére (a trauma ballet in two parts)" performed by the Calder Quartet at the MATA Festival. Music with and without Musicians.
New York Times review by Steve Smith of "Cross-Sections: Four Pieces for Electric Guitar Quartet" from Dither, the 2010 album from Dither Quartet on the Henceforth Record Label. Go Electric.
Civic Center Blog review by Michael Strickland of the premiere of "Music Painted from Memory" by the Navitas Ensemble at Other Minds 16. Civic Center.
Point of Departure Magazine review by Stuart Boomer of "Cross-Sections: Four Pieces for Electric Guitar Quartet" from Dither. Moment's Notice.