Artist’s Statement

It is my aim to create music that is passionate, well-crafted and accessible.  I want to integrate the different strands of American musical culture into a language that is fresh, but familiar. Above all, I try to make my work authentic.

Career

Composing music has always been part of my life. Even as a child, I wrote songs and piano pieces for my own enjoyment.  By the time I was in my teens, I was writing for piano, small instrumental ensembles and vocal works.  I got a good grounding in musical theory from my piano teachers and as a member of the San Francisco Boy’s Chorus - but mainly I was self-taught as a composer.  I "learned from the masters" by studying the scores of the great composers.  I attended Berkeley High School which had a stellar music department in the 60’s. While a student there, I began conducting my own compositions - including a Piano Concerto - and became Assistant Conductor of the West Contra Costa Symphony under Ron Daniels.

After graduating from Berkeley High, I went to UC Santa Cruz.  As one of the few composition students, I got called upon to write for dance recitals, to provide incidental music for plays and  I continued to develop as a conductor of other people's works as the Assistant Conductor of the University Symphony, the University Band and the Opera Workshop. I also got my first real church job as Music Director at the First Methodist Church. I graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1976.  However, by this time I had concluded that I was not suited to the academic world. I returned to the Bay Area and began giving concerts and held a succession of church musician jobs.  I also took on larger works such as my Lenten cantata:  "Ah, Precious Jesus".

As the years passed, I started a family and balanced my life as a father and an artist while holding down a 'day job' as a computer programmer.   I continued to work at churches and with community based musical groups, eventually becoming Conductor and Music Director of Berkeley Harmonia Chorus and Orchestra.  Along the line, I discovered ragtime and began writing my own rags and performing at ragtime festivals around the country.

In the 1990's, I moved to San Francisco and was associated with Goat Hall Productions - an opera company - which premiered my opera “The Soldiers Who Wanted to Kill Death".  My anti-war mass "Missa L'Homme Arme" and my oratorio "Harden Not Your Hearts" were written during this period.

Currently

Since moving to Sonoma in the early 2000's, I have been active as a composer, conductor, arranger and performer.   I am Music Director of the Sonoma Hometown Band and active in local theater.   I have just retired from my position as Director of Music Ministries for the First Presbyterian Church of Napa after serving there for twelve years. Recent works include my jazz cantata:  "Calvary"  - which has been performed every year for the last two years -  my Concerto for Piano and Symphonic Band which premiered in 2018 and my musical  - "The Gift of the Magi" - which was performed as a staged reading in 2019 .  COVID put a hard stop on preparations for a fully staged version of “The Gift of the Magi” as well as my other musical projects. I did put on two “virtual concerts” which were well received. I am currently involved in a project with Stephanie Ozer to record some of my piano works for a new CD which should come out mid-year.