I recorded this solo piece for harp in 2010.  It's not mixed or mastered yet.

Pescetti (a piece for harp)

Sounds of Thoughts (or Thoughtful Sounds)

I was the sound designer for Suor Angelica at the PAC in Purchase, NY in 2009.  I recorded the entire opera live; here is the famous aria, "Senza Mamma", performed by D. Wangerin.

Suor Angelica: Senza Mamma

Where the hell did I get this name from?!  Created in 2009 with samples, an MPC, and MoPhatt and an Xtreme Lead synths.

Hop on Top

Trannequin - History of Perfection

In my composition class, we were asked to write a piece of music in response to a tumultuous moment of a Shakespeare play.  I chose The Tempest because Caliban is just an awesome character.  I think of him as a gentle giant and a nice island creature, though that is not the general consensus.  This piece represents Caliban's torment and his disagreements with Prospero, who has taken him as a slave.  Pretend you aren't hearing Sibelius' fabulous instrument sounds.

Caliban

Excluding the voiceover, this "environment" was created with sounds that I generated using my hands and some found instruments.  The storyline is something along the lines of:

We are in a strange land where trees are the dominant species.  They speak, think, and have feelings.  They establish a community of trees.  Some trees just stand still and look pretty.  Some trees are carpenters and kill other trees for their wood.  Some trees are old, some trees are young.  This tree lost his "arm" in a storm, and watches from above - his roots planted firmly in the ground - while a carpenter tree prepares to cut up his missing branch for firewood.  We hear the abstracted storm from the sad tree's point of view.  There is no atmosphere, so sound is absorbed through tree bark.  Therefore, each tree perceives sound differently.  The carpenter tree may not hear the storm at all.

Sad Tree [my arm fell off in the storm]

A school assignment.  We were asked to write a piece for viola, flute, and percussion.

Ghost

This is a piece I wrote for my Composition class - we were asked to compose something for flute, viola, and percussion.  I wanted to write something that would create, psycho-acoustically, the aural illusion of a quarter tone scale.  I also wanted the piece to be easy to play, meaning no quarter tone scales.  This is what I came up with - enjoy!

(performed by The Janus Trio and recorded by the first-year Recording Arts class at the Yale School of Drama)

ragusa