Category: Music

Posted on

Esther and Holland at John C. Campbell Folk School

Monday, July 22nd, Esther Morgan-Ellis and I play another show in our current run of concerts featuring new old-time music for fiddle and banjo. We’ll be at the illustrious John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina.

Monday, July 22, 2024 8pm
Doctors of Original Fiddle Banjo Duets
John C. Campbell Folk School
1 Folk School Rd
Brasstown NC 28902

I’ve only visited the Folk School once, and that was over 20 years ago when my wife and I went to a concert there on our honeymoon!

We’ll also be playing for the Contra Dance on Tuesday, July 23rd, with dances called by Caller Alex Macleod.

Posted on

Esther & Holland in Dahlonega

set list for concert, showing song names, notes, banjo tunings
set list for tonight’s concert

Tonight Esther Morgan-Ellis and I play the last show in our current run of concerts featuring new old-time music for fiddle and banjo.

Saturday, May 18, 2024 7:30pm
Esther & Holland
University of North Georgia – Dahlonega Campus
Shott Auditorium
Dahlonega GA

We’ve just wrapped up a recording session with John Grimm for all these tunes. So be on the lookout for a future release!

Posted on

The Next Moment

The next concert in my Birmingham New Music Festival schedule is The Next Moment, tonight at East Village Arts in Birmingham, Alabama. I’m playing a new piece for extended banjo and live electronics that uses automated phone system samples (“To speak with a customer representative…press 9…”). Craig Hultgren will premiere As Safe As If It Were In The Fire for ecello and live electronics.

Saturday, May 11, 2024 5pm
The Next Moment: Mostly Improv
2024 Birmingham New Music Festival
East Village Arts
7611 1st Ave N
Birmingham AL 35206

Other composers and improvisers on the program include Rob Voisey, the festival’s guest composer visiting from NYC, LaDonna Smith, Michael Coleman, and Joshua David Davis.

Posted on

Around Stravinsky

An excerpt from the score for Extras

The BAMA Players will premiere my septet, Extras, on a concert titled Around Stravinsky presented by the Birmingham Art Music Alliance as part of the 2024 Birmingham New Music Festival.

Friday, May 10, 2024 7:30pm
Around Stravinsky
2024 Birmingham New Music Festival
Samford University
Brock Recital Hall
800 Lakeshore Dr
Homewood AL 35209

All of the works on the program are inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s Septet (1953). Other composers on the concert include Wesley Johnson, Mark Lackey, Jody Landers, and Matthew Scott Phillips.

My work uses the last few bars of the last movement of Stravinsky’s piece as a jumping off point. The pianist serves as a kind of conductor for the open score. The wind and string players choose which phrases they play in each section as the music unfolds. Every performance is unique. The title comes from an analysis of Stravinsky’s score which declared certain notes “extra.” I wrote Extras to create a kind of foster home for Stravinsky’s orphans.

The BAMA players featured in this concert are

  • Brad Whitfield, clarinet
  • Cameron Bonner, bassoon
  • Valerie Sly, horn
  • Sarah Norlund Dennis, violin
  • Chris Lowry, viola
  • Peter Garrett, cello
  • Eun-Hee Park, piano