Some information about me
Hello
Who am I? A musician, composer, improvisor, and bandleader living in Pittsburgh PA.
For decades I have been involved with creative music making in the region and beyond. I am most frequently a bandleader or co-leader, and generally write for the purpose of providing my groups new music to play.
Even if I am the person in charge, I enjoy the act of collaboration. One reason for composing is to create new ways to interact with my fellow musicians. I am lucky to work with many excellent musicians, and appreciate not only their abilities, but their trust and friendship.
I am currently involved with:
Thoth Trio (with Paul Thompson and David Throckmorton, intense acoustic jazz)
Bombici (mutant Balkan instrumental dance music with electronics)
OPEK (Sun Ra-inspired big band)
The Throckmorton Plot (groove-based electroacoustic improvisation)
Sound/Unsound (rock and spacey electroacoustic improvisation)
Book Exchange (modern and free jazz classics)
There's also a long list of former (or inactive) bands and collaborators, including Flexure, Water Shed 5tet, Morphic Resonance, Coal Train, LMNO Quartet, D-Cipher, Pittsburgh Saxophone Quartet, Silk Sound, among others.
Along with David Throckmorton, I curated the Space Exchange series for five years, a free weekly series of creative music played by both local and international musicians. I also, pre-pandemic, curated the Live at Kingfly series of jazz and creative musicians.
In 2008, I lead a small group that organized and presented Braxton Plays Pittsburgh Plays Braxton, a mini-festival devoted to workshops and concerts with MacArthur award winner Anthony Braxton. The concert events included: the Braxton Septet at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (later released by New Braxton House); two performances at the National Aviary; a fifteen-piece orchestra of local players performing some of Anthony's creative music orchestra works, with my then-high school avant garde ensemble CAPA Antithesis opening with an all Braxton program. The festival was supported by grants from RADWorks, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and Sprout Fund.
I was a recipient of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Creative Achievement Award, and a Creative Development Grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. The latter was used to support the completion, rehearsal, and first performance of Concerto for Orkestra, a ten movement symphonic suite for jazz orchestra.
I am an artist lecturer in music technology in the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University, and am former faculty at the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). I have an undergraduate degree in music education, and a graduate degree in music technology, from Duquesne University.
A partial discography can be seen here.
This is a partial biography. CV is available upon request.
