This piece was composed in the spring of 2017 for Victor Sanchez, a student in the dance department at CSU Fullerton, to accompany his work "Brothers?". It premiered at the 2017 American College Dance Association (ACDA) Festival at El Camino College in Torrance, California. The track features Craig Shields on piano and Marnina Wirtschafter on violin.

Brothers?

I improvised this score for a lovely romantic duet choreographed by two students at CSU Fullerton in the spring of 2019. I aimed to capture the warmth and depth of their relationship without overstating the sweetness of it, focusing more on the strength and trust they share. We recorded this on an iPhone in one take while I watched a rehearsal video of the piece, which they performed in an intimate black-box theater just a few feet from the audience. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and grateful that they asked me to collaborate.

Gazing

I composed this for Sarah Boardman's piece of the same name for Chapman University's 2019 Spring Dance Concert. Getting to be artistic as well as real-life partners is an experience I cherish, so our first outing here was incredibly special.

The piece was a murder mystery in the abstract, bodies dropping in darkness, everybody a suspect. I recorded everything using synths and a friend's electric guitar, and most of the themes were teased out of hours of improvisation. The first section is a steady seven, with faster layers of seven underneath. (Please enjoy the Twin Peaks nugget as well.) The second section is in turns dreamy and spastic, inspired by surf/western soundtracks and Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint" for electric guitar. The final section features shimmering arpeggios that ebb through an unsettled harmonic progression until the first theme returns – and the killer is revealed.

Presents from Strange Men

I created this score for Sarah Boardman, whose piece "Grow Up" was featured in Next of Kin, a dance concert produced by the Wayward Artist in Orange County, CA. I wanted to use mostly found sounds that I had recorded on my phone:

- the underlying drone is the fire alarm in our apartment complex slowed down by about 97%
- the child's voice is a looped and reversed recording I took at Seattle Center at a musical playground
- the rhythmic segment is from a stationery shop and printing press in downtown Seattle
- the final sounds are my favorite wind chimes, which I recorded in my closet at home

I enjoyed creating this minimal collage and thought it suited the darker themes of the choreography nicely.

Grow Up

I composed this score for choreographer Wilson Mendieta's contemporary interpretation of "Medea", which premiered at the Musco Center for the Arts in Orange, CA as part of Chapman University's Fall Faculty Dance Concert in November 2019. This piece concludes the three-part evening-length work that the choreographer aims to complete. It deals with themes of repression, ostracism, and redemption within a severe religious community: Medea's husband, the patriarch, falls in love with a young man and the community revolts against him until the spirits of Medea and her two children, transcending human nature through death, bring them to a realization of acceptance and peace.

Return to Life

Recorded live in Los Angeles, September 2018. Mixed and edited by Jeremy Hahn and Stephen Beitler.

Sound Bath Improvisation

Composed for Joshua Estrada-Romero, faculty member at Santa Ana College (CA), for the dance department’s virtual winter concert in December 2020. Josh asked for something minimally techno without much in the way of melody or harmony, which fit the video’s austere setting and sharp choreography rather well.

On the Court

percussionist / dance collaborator / member of Cuñao

beats by beard

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