Autumn 2023 Newsletter

Hi All!

Here is an update as to my current musical whereabouts.

Firstly, If you are in NYC please come and see the movie that Artforum says everyone should see and nobody should ever make again. Or better yet, Brooklyn Rail reveals that the music of the moment is encapsulated. I am giving a talkback with director Brian Vincent about my process making the score this Monday 2:30pm at New Plaza Cinema. The film has been playing for three months in NYC and elsewhere, opening in San Francisco at the Roxie next week. Much more to come on this soon to be cult classic!!

I have begun writing a score with Emmy winning director Dawn Scibilia’s new documentary After The Vote. This film is an incredibly unrepresented glimpse into the post suffragist movement in NYC. I’m making a pop jazz score focused around stride piano, various big band ensembles and everything in between. This more cinematic track is a temp inspiration I created.

Demo tracks are flying out in my collaboration with the amazing Public Theater Emerging Writer Alaudin Ullah’s musical in development.

Likewise, my classical musical accompaniment to webby award winning writer/director Jack Canfora’s amazing take on the meeting of Mozart and Beethoven is coming along nicely. Here is a snippet from an imagined four hands piano improvisation session on the aria from Bach’s Goldberg variations. The score for this play with music is primarily string quartet. Can’t wait to present this, as it’s very near and dear. 🙂

Pelican’s Will – In the mid 90’s a first time filmmaker, Helene Abrams created an indie film in Hollywood. It’s a remarkable script about all kinds of social injustice and corporate greed with some really exciting performances. She finished it at Warner (they basically gave her free lockouts with an editor and sound and color correction) and got to the point where it was time for a musical score and unfortunately her mother got sick and she moved back to NYC never to return to LA. So her film, Pelican’s Will, up until a couple of years ago was just a collection of about 80 digibeta tapes in climate controlled storage. Of course you know the rest. I’m making the score. It’s a labor of love for a super unique project. A potential festival release 26+ years after the color correction! It’s as crazy and wonderful as it sounds.

Finally here is video from my new classical piano 8.1 immersive piece Robot Master which premiered in September at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in NYC, presented by my great friend and compositional colleague Roy Vanegas. Of course this video is no representation of the immersive quality of the piece. There will be opportunities to create studio recordings of this and other immersive works in the future.