I’m happy to share a bill with Matt Bryant for a First Friday Tuscaloosa event at Marcus & Beatty. Matt and I will alternate solo sets during the night–Matt on ukulele and me on fretless banjo. We’ll both bring the electronics.
Friday, March 6, 2026 Matt Bryant / Holland Hopson Marcus & Beatty 2124 9th St. Tuscaloosa AL 35401
I’m a regular at Marcus & Beatty for haircuts, gifts and clothing. It’s so good to have them supporting music in the neighborhood! You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the mural on the east side of their building.
Pianists Kathryn Fouse and Adam Bowles wrap up their recent Alabama tour presented by the Birmingham Art Music Alliance with a concert at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Sunday, March 1. They’ll perform their program of new compositions for piano, including my piece Cypher, A Circle for two pianos. Other composers on the program include Ron Clemmons, Michael Coleman, Monroe Golden, Gavin Green, Michael Huebner, Mark Lackey, and Emily Zhang.
Cypher, A Circle is a series of guided improvisations using the puzzle-like diagram above to determine pitches, durations, number of notes, etc.
The concert is part of the 12th Annual UAH Keyboard Festival which will feature works by CNSNC (Consonance), a New Jersey-based collective of six contemporary composers on Monday, March 2.
Hank Lazer and I are returning to our recent performance celebrating the release of Lazer’s poetry collection Abundant Life. Hank will read selections from the book. I’ll provide some ambient field recording sounds, play my electric clawhammer guitar, and deploy some voice-responsive electronics.
“[Art is] a craft-based tool for the study of consciousness.” — Caroll Dunham
I think this description fits what Lazer and I do together.
Friday, February 13, 2025 5:30pm Abundant Life Lorrie Lane Studio 2420 Gary Fitts Street Tuscaloosa, 35401 Reading and performance with Hank Lazer
We’re happy to be performing in Lorrie Lane’s recently expanded studio on an evening’s program that includes some hands-on art marking, too!
Tomorrow pianists Kathryn Fouse and Adam Bowles kick off a six city tour of Alabama presented by the Birmingham Art Music Alliance. They’ll perform a program of new compositions for piano duo, including my piece Cypher, A Circle. Bowles and Fouse premiered the work in 2013.
The piece is a series of guided improvisations using the puzzle-like diagram above to determine pitches, durations, number of notes, etc.
Other composers on the program include Ron Clemmons, Michael Coleman, Monroe Golden, Gavin Green, Michael Huebner, Mark Lackey, and Emily Zhang. Not every program includes every piece; the ones that include my work are in bold below.
Tuesday 2/10 1pm – Shelton State Community College, Terrific Tuesday Series, Tuscaloosa AL
The Vurorovesi Trio will perform my composition Worldlines on Monday, January 12 at 7pm in the Moore Gallery in Bryce Main on the campus of the University of Alabama. The Vuorovesi Trio is made up of University of Alabama School of Music faculty members Diane Boyd Schultz, Mary Lindsey Bailey, Osiris J. Molina.
Monday, January 12, 2026 7:00pm Vuorovesi Trio Moore Gallery in Bryce Main University of Alabama Tuscaloosa AL
Like many of my scores, the musicians performing Worldlines determine the moment-to-moment shape of the music. In this case, all of the musicians share the same written material and use hand-signals to determine how they navigate through it. One hand signal may cue players to repeat their current phrase, while another may cause them to read backwards through the score. A worldline is a tool from physics which describes an object’s path in both three-dimensional space and in time.
Worldlines is scored for 3 or more sustaining instruments. I love how well it fits the wind trio format and Vuorovesi, in particular. Here’s a video from Vuorovesi’s April 2025 performance at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
