COMPOSITIONS
Though I thought all through middle school and high school that I would be a composer, I actually do a lot more arranging than composing these days. That's not because I gave up on the dream of writing music, but I've been around so many fabulous composers in NYC, that I realize my talents mainly lie elsewhere. However, it's still sometimes nice to stretch the muscle of coming up with original music, and here's a few small examples.
I wrote the music to this short film, which my fiancé Carlos filmed on his drone. This is the place we're getting married this July, near the headwaters of the Missouri River.
When the time came for the Hamilton cast to come up with our song for the 2017 Carols for a Cure album (a Holiday benefit for Broadway Cares), I asked Benny Reiner to help me come up with the idea. We were helped by a NY Times article that referenced the musical of Alexander Hamilton's time in the 18th Century, including a popular hymn at the time, "Chester" by William Billings. In looking at the bleak-sounding lyrics of the first verse, Benny and I had the idea to draw a parallel to some of the bleak and darker aspects of our current world, and the fear that they engender. We set the hymn tune to a minor key instead of major, wrote some dark and menacing orchestrations, and interspersed hip-hop verses, to be written and performed by current cast members. I gave them the prompt, in terms of writing, to respond to, and ultimately transcend, some of the pressing fears of 2017. I was especially happy to feature the Hamilton band, who have such a bad-ass sound when they play.
One of the greatest thrills of my professional career was when my friend Bill Sherman asked me to write music for an episode of Sesame Street. The lyrics were given to me by the show, and I had freedom to come up with whatever musical style I wanted for the show. After about four drafts, with notes from Bill, we arrived at this version. I didn't get to go to the set for filming, but it's still surreal to see these iconic characters singing a melody I came up with.
My friend Adolfo Mena Cejas is a talented Cuban filmmaker, and he asked me to write and record the score for his latest short film, called "La Maquina" ("The Machine"). I can't post the finished film, because it is still in consideration for some festivals, but it has garnered quite a lot of attention at festivals so far:
HollyShorts Film Festival OFFICIAL SELECTION (Academy Awards Qualifying Film Festival)
NewFilmmakers LA with AMPAS (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences)
London Eye Film Festival - official selection
Sometimes, my Carlos and I set ourselves a challenge of creating a short video project with music in under an hour. These two little stop-motion pieces came out of that challenge, which is just a way to stretch our creative muscles under a time constraint. The second one, "Smile", I set myself the challenge to record the whole thing on electric guitar, which I'm still learning.
When I was still in high school, I worked with my great composition teacher, William Fletcher, on a composition for piano trio, because I was playing a lot of chamber music at the time. He taught me a lot about Sonata Form through this writing, and I still remain very fond of this piece, which I played with my chamber trio.
Working with that same composition teacher, who was also the conductor of our Choir, we delved into the composition of choral music. I recall writing a setting of the Ave Maria text, the sound of which he likened to "a Russian Samuel Barber", which definitely speaks to my iPod playlist at the time - Barber's Adagio for Strings, and the Rachamaninoff Vespers.