I have a doctor of arts in music composition from the University of Northern Colorado, a master’s in music composition from the University of Southern Maine, and a BA from Northeastern University. I studied classical guitar in high school at the Boston Conservatory.
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, a MIDI mockup, and a research portion that 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.