Chopin Nocturne

I've started a project recently for my beautiful little niece, Amelia.  Her mom (my sister), asked me to record some classical piano solos for Mila to listen to.

Here's the first recording, Chopin's Nocturne in E flat Major.  Incidentally, this piece was the favorite of my late grandfather, Dick Sauble.

Island

About two years ago, my friend Michelle Martinez and I took a day trip up to a beach in north Seattle, and had long deep conversations about love, relationships, and culture.  Somewhere along the beach, we got around to discussing writing songs together.

Later on that day, high on sunshine and Indian food, we took a look at a piece that I was working on, "Theme and Variations", of which I already completed the first variation and intended to write three more.  Using the pre-existing melody as counterpoint, and the harmonic structure with some changes to the form, we started to add a vocal melody with original lyrics.

It was amazing how quickly everything came together, once we started on the idea of telling the story about her past relationship with a woman who was distant and controlling, like an island surrounded by fast currents.  The music happened just as fast, and we completed the piece in less than two hours.

Putting it together afterwards turned out to be more difficult.  I had only just started learning how to mix and master recordings in Logic Pro X, and Michelle was just starting out learning recording techniques.  We experimented with different microphones, changing the key, and adding compression, but ultimately I was never completely satisfied with the final product.

About a month ago, Michelle suggested that we take another look at it, try re-recording and mixing the piece.  This time, everything came together pretty easily, and finally I'm proud to present what we created together.

Hub New Music

In a small, brick room resembling a vault in Seattle's lost corners of Capitol Hill, I joined an audience of maybe 15 persons for a performance of new music by mixed ensemble "Hub New Music".  As part of "Spontaneous Combustion"s mid-winter 3-week program, the group was invited with Michael Avitabile on flute, Jesse Christensen on Cello, David Dziardziel on Clarinet, and Zenas Hsu on violin.    It was a very intimate venue in an almost dead-space, where each instrument could be heard quite clearly.

The first piece, David Drexler's "Forgotten at Dawn", a score selected for the Spontaneous Combustion last year's call for scores, made good use of various string & cello techniques, with clear battuto col legion and on-bridge playing blended with the other instruments which swapped unison notes for a "who's got it this time" effect.  The Ensemble came together with a hollow balance, strings complementing winds and vice versa, with players who have been playing together long enough to resonate as a cohesive whole.

The second set, by Northwest composer Laura Kaminsky, depicted scenes from the Colorado Rocky Mountains, punctuated by the interruption of 9/11, which colored the set for the composer mid-through conception.  While there were some nice effects, I found myself disagreeing with the composer's endings; namely, that she either ended a piece of the set before I felt the development reached its peek, or adding a snippet where I felt the ending would be more effective.  For example, "Slate Riverbed" finished with a wholesome partnership of cello and clarinet, but where the mood and timing of clarinet would have been a satisfying ending, the composer chose to add a couple of extra notes in the cello that felt tacked on.  Furthermore, while "Boulders/Avalanche" had a very effective, tumbling beginning with gritty cello arpeggios, it recapped this thematic element near the end with none of satisfaction, nor even conclusion.  While I respect the composition and its method, I could not fully agree with its all the elements of its execution.

Robert Honstein's "Soul House", while drawing from a hum-drum programmatic subject, had some very satisfying and melodic pieces in the set.  For a world premiere of only 15 people in attendance, I thought it deserved a bigger audience.  Indeed, the conclusion of the first, "Bay Window", with its violin and cello harmonic arpeggios in varying speeds, drew goosebumps from my arms.  "Stairs" consisted of rising scales and major thirds for a whole tone series, bouncing, which was fun and creative.  I disagreed with "Alcove", with its static unison and pizzicato, which I felt lead nowhere, but my friend Jacob actually preferred this piece over the others.  "Hallway" was very loud and noisy - perhaps too much so for the small, dead interior.  I felt similarly about rising and falling "Driveway, which seemed to have little purpose though it had more motion than the former.  "Landing" felt like a technical study more than anything else.

"Cooper Beach", on the other hand, with a lovely 3rd ostinato passed from violin to flute to clarinet, had much harmonic purpose, with full but not cliche chords which pulled towards a goal.  The final piece, "Secret Place", started with a rising melody similar to "Ave Maria", and proceeded in a very carol-is set of unwinding chords.  While I agreed with the fluid harmonics, which kept returning to the melodic center, I cringed at the end.  As the violin rose in the melody to the highest pitch-perfect notes of the register, I felt deeply that it needed to decline in pitch to balance the obvious harmonics of the rest of the piece.  Unfortunately, it merely continued to rise to a conclusive tonic at the very top of the range of the violin, which felt so cliche that I thought it was a pity.

I wish "Hub New Music" all the best, and I hope to see them come to Seattle again in the future.

Recording 11/28/17

In October and November, I was asked to compose an original soundtrack for David Fowler's 40-minute movie "Lean On Me".  Eight of the tracks were programmed into MIDI in Logic Pro X; however, I chose two especially sensitive pieces to be recorded by soprano Achil Obenza, and cellist Ash.

We recorded together at Jack Straw Productions ( http://www.jackstraw.org ) in the University District in Seattle on November 28th.  It was a bit of a challenge, since due to Achil's illness and Ash's surgery immediately preceding the recording session, none of us had been able to rehearse together except by sending one another recordings of us playing our solo parts for the other to practice to.  Nonetheless, both of them were troopers, and we managed to get some really beautiful recordings.

Below are "Darryl" (track 6) and "Good Friend" (track 7).

Soundscape

Tonight, I had an existential crisis.

I think every artist has to go through these on a regular basis.

Somehow this happened as a result, and I won't lie, I'm rather proud of it.

Your Ma Must Be Proud 2017

In March, I had the privilege to debut two original compositions at the "Your Ma Must Be Proud" event, hosted by the Seattle Symphony Ushers.

My friend Janice Robinette, who wrote the poem "Bloodstones", asked me to write accompanying piano music for the poem.  In addition, I debuted "Theme Variation Number 3", which was recorded last year.

Here is the full program below:

48 Hour Film Festival 2017

In July, I had the privilege of participating in the 48 Hour Film Festival, as part of Team Estrogen.

As the name may suggest, the team was comprised entirely of women.  In addition to producers Michelle Shadday and Amanda Drewniak, our writer/director was the talented Christina Perry, our photographer was Erica Stauffer, and our editor was Whitney Bennett.  Actresses Yvonne Velez, Elyse Kleidon and Sunga Rose filled out the ranks.

We wrote, filmed and edited the entire 7-minute move on site at Sandra Geldenhuys-Scragg's beautiful residence in West Seattle, overlooking the Sound and Mount Rainier.

Below is the fruit of our labor, a fun 48 hour adventure in film making.