All Hail The Bufo Toad (2021)

Voice, Viola, and Fixed Media, 6’03”

The work was inspired by two items from the Lowe Art Museum (pictured below).

 

Bufo Toad Whistle

 

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Botanica

 

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The narrative of the work begins in a jungle where our character encounters a bufo toad. The

bufo toad has psychedelic properties when licked. Our character licks the toad and reality begins

to distort. They are met by a spirit guy (the green man) and taken into the Botanica light box and led on an adventure.

 

Live To Serve (2020)

Tuba and Fixed Media, 5’12”

The formal structure of this work is meant to simulate the consonant bombardment of intensity in war. One must always be ready and must push forward through battle.

 

The Monster You Made (2020)

Cello and Fixed Media, 3’57”

As humans, we often make assumptions about people we don’t know, accept rumors as reality, or take small moments of interactions to form our conclusions about who a person is fully. These first impressions, if not positive, often vilify a person and rarely do our impressions change once we have made up our minds. Someone may be one of the kindest people but no matter their actions, if we view them as evil, a villain, a monster, that is all that we will ever see. It is a creature of your own design. It is the monster YOU made.

 

Turn My Heart To Stone (2020)

Vibraphone and Fixed Media 4’39”

Watching something we love, turn into something we hate, can scar us forever.

 

Electric Thunder Dunk (2020)

Trumpet and Fixed Media, 4’42”

I wrote this piece in response to losing my hero, Kobe Bryant. My mindset, personality, and outlook for life was shaped by Kobe. I equally have the obsessive desire for the things I love. His work ethic is what I have strived to mimic as I pursue my own passions and always tried to put in the hours to achieve my goals. He said this to someone and it always stuck with me, “you’re never going to outwork me, however hard you are willing to work, I’m willing to work harder than that”. His words and actions to chase his dream at all costs, grind for greatness, and try to be a little bit better each day is something I admire about how he approached his life. I had his quotes in a giant collage on my wall for years and hear his words in my head often. He is the most influential person I have never met, but that’s what Kobe does to me. He was a man who inspired the people around him, was a loving husband, parent, and friend. I’ll love you forever. Rest easy Mamba.

 

Moonlights Luster (2017)

Marimba and Piano, 4'

The storyline I created for this piece follows a character as they look to the ocean on a warm summer night. The character sees the beauty of the moonlight shimmering on the waves, but also begins to wonder what lies in the darkness beneath the water. After contemplating, the character decides to not only focus on the beauty they can already see but takes a leap of faith into the water to explore everything the mystery of unknown has to offer.

 

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Shoot The J (2017) Solo Bassoon, 7'

The game of basketball has brought me peace ever since I started playing regularly halfway through my undergraduate degree. When it is just the hoop, ball, and myself I reach a meditative-like state. Getting my Masters degree in the birthplace of basketball at the University of Kansas has brought me even closer to the game. I thought that while at KU it would be wrong to not honor the great basketball heritage of the school and also my love for the game with music. The title, Shoot The J, is short for “shoot the jump-shot”, and was made popular by a Dave Chappelle comedy sketch in 2004.

In creating this piece, I made a video of myself running one-player offense basketball sequences in which certain physical movements, along with the ball’s ricochet off different surfaces, correlates to a particular musical rhythm. For instance, every dribble is a quarter note and every foot movement equals a sixteenth note. Each measure of the piece is representative of one of the basketball plays. Staccato notes at the ends of phrases represent made baskets while missed baskets simply carry on to the next sequence. After gathering all the rhythms from the video, I retrograded the material and altered the melody to my liking. I then followed the same process with another video of my “cool down” that I do at the completion of every workout.

 

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Pressure On The Line (2016)

Solo Timpani, 1'

Written for Brent Miller's TIMP.20 series, "Pressure On The Line" focuses on the build and release of tension. Not only in the amount of tension on the timpani’s membrane, but also in the changing sonorities and rhythm of the piece.