Welcome to my webpage. Here you will find a calendar of upcoming performances of my compositions, a list of my works with audio and score excerpts, my biography and reviews of my music. I also have a MySpace page. You are welcome to look around and contact me if you have any questions or would like copies of scores, parts or recordings. Enjoy!
As a composer, I aim to create compelling musical works that vividly engage my listener's emotions, imagination and spirit. My music is often inspired by the visual arts, dance, poetry, and a variety of musical traditions. Generally, my vocabulary is eclectic, synthesizing and juxtaposing many styles and idioms. I enjoy *writing for my gig,* that is, finding just the right style, form and difficulty level for every piece I compose. This process always keeps things interesting, keeps me connected to the performers I'm working with and allows me to continue to broaden my horizons.
A number of my recent pieces have been inspired by traditional Appalachian music. For example, I use two folk melodies, “My Home’s Across the Smoky Mountains” and “Wild Rose of the Mountain” in my orchestra and narrator piece Off-Trail in the Smokies (2009). This piece was commissioned by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and was premiered at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Similarly, my chamber piece Fiddlin' After Midnight (2007) is based on Appalachian folk tunes and features a traditional fiddler alongside classical musicians.
I frequently compose choral music and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Choral Society premiered my Hodie, for choir and orchestra at the 2008 Clayton Holiday Concerts. Also, the University of the South Choir commissioned me to compose a setting of There is no rose that was premiered to an audience of 3000+ at the 2008 Lessons & Carols Services in All Saints Chapel in Sewanee, TN.
I am also very interested in composing music for dance, theater and multimedia productions and find collaborations to be very rewarding experiences. I am currently involved with Unless & Until, an exciting multimedia project combining art, literature, animation/video. To keep updated about this project, go to the project preview page <"http://www.unlessanduntil.info">here. I am the co-founder and music director of Art Moves, an annual site-specific dance production at the Knoxville Museum of Art wherein all the music and dance is based on works of art on display in the museum. Since 2005, I've been involved with the Tennessee Valley UU Church Performing Art & Lecture Series (PALS) and I organize a thematic multimedia concert event every season (2006: Sounds of the Labyrinth; 2007: Echoes of Appalachia; 2008: Waging Peace in Times of War; 2009: Sounds & Sweet Airs: Shakespeare & Music).
My music has been performed by such groups as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Plymouth Music Series Orchestra, Auros Group for New Music, Ciompi String Quartet, the Rilke Ensemble Choir (Sweden), Luna Nova New Music Ensemble, the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Knoxville Choral Society, the Cornell Chamber Singers, the University of Washington Chorale and college choirs throughout the Southeast. My works have been featured at the New Music Days Festival (Gothenburg, Sweden), the Oregon Bach Festival, the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival (Memphis, TN), the Encounters/UNC Festival of New Music, the North Carolina Dance Festival, the Otterbein "Old Links to New Music" Contemporary Music Festival, the University of Nebraska New Music Festival and various music conferences.
RECENT & UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:
Dans le labyrinthe de Marais (2002), Luna Nova Music Ensemble (Craig Hultgren, cello, Adam Bowles, piano), Looking Forward Looking Back, Monday, October 6, 2008, 7:30, First Congregational Church, 1000 S. Cooper St., Memphis, TN.
There is No Rose for women's chorus and organ, World Premier, commissioned by the University Choir, Robert Delcamp, Director, Lessons & Carols, 5:00 & 8:00 p.m., December 7, All Saints Chapel, Sewanee: The University of the South, TN.
Hodie Christus Natus Est for chorus and orchestra, World Premier, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Knoxville Choral Society, Lucas Richman, conducting, Clayton Holiday Concerts, Civic Auditorium, 7:30, Friday, December 19; 3:00 & 7:30, Saturday, December 20; 3:00, Sunday, December 21. Here is a Knoxville News Sentinel article about the piece.
Gryllus, Adam Bowles, piano, 3:00, January 25, 2009, Beethoven Club, Memphis, TN & January 26, 2009, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AK.
ART MOVES 2009, a site-specific multimedia dance production event at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Momentum Dance Lab, Saturday & Sunday afternoon, February 21 & 22, 2009, KMA, Knoxville, TN. (For more about Art Moves, see Workslist)
Places in Seattle, Randall Hall, alto saxophone, Deborah Dakin, viola, 8 p.m. March 18, Wallenberg Hall, Augustana College, 639 38th St., Rock Island, IL 61201.
SOUNDS & SWEET AIRS: Shakespeare & Music, featuring my Menacing Spirits: 2 Shakespearean Monologues for contralto and piano, and performances by the Wild Thyme Players, Momentum Dance Lab, and others, 7:30 p.m., MARCH 28, 2009, PALS, Tennessee Valley UU Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN.
Gryllus, Adam Bowles, piano, Belvedere Chamber Music Festival Preview Concert, 3:00, Sunday, March 29, 2009, Beethoven Club, Memphis, TN.
WORLD PREMIER of Off-Trail in the Smokies for narrator and symphony orchestra, commissioned by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Lucas Richman, conductor, text by Jenny Bennett, 3:00, Saturday, June 13, Cades Cove, Smoky Mountains National Park.
Unless & Until, a multimedia storybook, presented at the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival, Memphis, TN, Friday, June 26, Memphis College of Art.
2007-08 Season Performances
2006-07 Season Performances
2005-06 Season Performances
2004-05 Season Performances
I'm currently living in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Please feel free to e-mail me if have any questions or would like any additional information
about me or my works.
Links
BIO
Works List
Reviews
Score Excerpts
My Space