/Teaching

I have a doctorate in music composition from the University of Northern Colorado. I teach composition, classical guitar, mandolin, and piano.

Click here to listen to guitar compositions from my Works for solo guitar album

I like to explore different ways of approaching creativity through composition. From the mentors I have learned from – studying composition and instruments – I’ve found different ways to explore, access, and realize my ideas. Recognizing, understanding, and being able to explain the different ways I’ve learned to approach writing has been an important part of this process.

My dissertation – The Ballybriar Heist: An original composition and the incorporation of folk music and tintinnabuli influences – is a 38 minute five-movement work for symphony orchestra.  It includes an analysis of the piece. The research portion examines the different ways composers collected, transcribed, recorded, and incorporated folk music into their writing throughout the mid-19th and 20th centuries.  It also examines traditional Irish music and its performance practice, and tintinnabuli – a compositional technique developed by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, including analysis of his tintinnabuli pieces.