Featured piano composition: Stained Glass Window
Featured chamber compositions
Email me for pdfs of scores and parts.
Glass Heroes for string quintet: Premiered at the OvreArts community concert “Light, Color, Sound” in 2016; also was broadcast on Pittsburgh's classical radio station WQED.
Points of Interest for brass quintet: Performed in the beautiful, if somewhat murky, space of Heinz Chapel in 2016 for an OvreArts community concert; also was broadcast on Pittsburgh's classical radio station WQED. Each movement is either written completely or partially in either 5/8 or 5/4. The last movement, Starfish, contains five beats in a measure, five measures in a phrase, and five phrases in a theme. It contains exactly 100 measures!
Martian Sunset for NOW Ensemble instrumentation (flute, clarinet, electric guitar, piano and upright bass): Student recording at Duquesne University, March 2012.
Featured vocal compositions
Email me for pdfs of scores and parts.
Email me for pdfs of scores and parts.
Lux et Tenebris: Performed by Voces Solis chamber choir of Pittsburgh. Written for the OvreArts community concert "Solstice: New Carols for the Season" December 2014. I enjoyed taking a trip through music history for this one - but with something in my own language, for once!
If Everything Is Lost for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano: A musical setting of the poem written by Dom Julian, taken from the book A Severe Mercy. Includes a free-meter moment containing improvisatory rhythm from the vocalist, with improvisatory glances of horror from the pianist as they attempt to accompany it. (The pianist is playing a rhythmic motif that can only change once the vocalist hits a certain note). Performed and recorded at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in 2011, with additional performances at Duquesne University and the OvreArts community concert “Art Songs and Interludes”.
Featured piano arrangements for children
As a piano teacher, I have arranged a few small pieces for my students as they request them. All arrangements are in large, easy-to-read font.
3 ½ pages. This one was for a 9-year-old overachiever! His hands were not big enough to reach the octaves, so I cut out the octaves, moving the triplets mostly to the left hand while the right hand plays the melody. I have cut out a section of the Sonata in the middle to make it shorter, and the key is in A minor instead of C# minor. Student should be comfortable reading accidentals, and should know how to read notes that are off the ledger lines. Student can use this piece to learn to travel their hands between clefs. Cost for score is $7.
Fur Elise: 1 page. Original key (A minor), right-hand only (with a little left hand on the same staff, indicated by stems-down around section B). Student must be comfortable moving outside of 5-finger hand positions. Cost for score is $4.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing: 1 page. Melody moves from left to right hands. Starts in “Both thumbs on C”, then student must move their hands to “C position”. Student must at least be comfortable with the C and G7 chords; you can use this piece to teach them the inverted F and Dm chords! Cost for score is $4.
Moonlight Sonata:
Moonlight Sonata:
3 ½ pages. This one was for a 9-year-old overachiever! His hands were not big enough to reach the octaves, so I cut out the octaves, moving the triplets mostly to the left hand while the right hand plays the melody. I have cut out a section of the Sonata in the middle to make it shorter, and the key is in A minor instead of C# minor. Student should be comfortable reading accidentals, and should know how to read notes that are off the ledger lines. Student can use this piece to learn to travel their hands between clefs. Cost for score is $7.
An original composition for kids: Ode to Pizza: 1 page. Performed here from memory by my adorable niece and piano student, Lily L. Written to help students progress with right hand scales and left hand rhythm patterns. Kids are EXTREMELY tickled by the title. Just the thing to mix up their regular piano routine! Cost for score is $4.
