artistic background

school
I played clarinet and sax in high school and in into my undergraduate at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, participating in every ensemble I could – marching band (grew to hate that one), concert band, wind ensemble, clarinet ensemble, woodwind quintet, sax quartet, jazz band… My degree was in composition, but I was still infected with the need to be the greatest player in the world at that time.  Finally getting past that was a blessing.  It was during this time that I found my first composition (and clarinet) mentor, Pete Temko.  My fondest memories are of composition studio class, where Dr. Temko would ask everyone what music they had listened to that week.  If he thought you were being a bit timid in you selections, you would receive a sound “NOT WEIRD ENOUGH – Everybody’s listened to The Rite of Spring a hundred times” (or something to this effect).  After one such admonition, I made sure that it would never happen again.  In between my undergraduate and master’s at the University of New Mexico, I played in a regionally successful reggae band and later in a slightly less successful but far more satisfying (get ready) genre splicing, livetronica jamband called infradig ensemble.  You’ll see plenty of these guys in video footage down the road.  Both were very formative.

While working in these groups, my wife had applied and been accepted to the clarinet program at UNM.  Remembering that she likely hadn’t married me with a life on the road as a jamband widow in mind, I looked into school as well.  A good friend who was already in the graduate program at UNM told me that one of the composition faculty had a Radiohead sticker on his door.  This was enough to convince me that I could carve out a place for myself there.  The sticker belonged to Chris Shultis, and it turns out that following my fanaticism for Radiohead was the right decision.  Whereas Pete had taught me above all to be a pragmatist, Chris taught me to be a philosopher.  Since I’m still studying with Mark Sullivan, I’ll skip the anecdotal stories for now.  I will say with certainty that to complement the pragmatic and the philosophic, Dr. Sullivan has taught me to have a social conscience in everything I do.

meghan merciers
Any discussion of my experiences as an artist or otherwise would not be complete without my wonderful wife Meghan.  We met as competitors for first chair in – -  well, every ensemble. Out of this competition has grown deep respect and abiding love.  When I’m in doubt about a new work, I trust her to let me have it for real.

the audimus players
During our undergraduates, Meghan and I formed a friendship with Erin Woodson that would prove to be the most influential artistic relationship I’ve  had.  Erin and I have joked that since we agree on so many issues, discussing art sometimes devolves into a boring back and forth as we sit and tell each other how right we are.  Out of this friendship grew the audimus player, an experimental electro-acoustic improvisational ensemble, characterized by a fierceness in performance and a bravery that allowed us to switch from noise to pop and back in under 30 seconds.  While we did struggle to find our place, Chattanooga has, thanks the Shakin’ Ray Levi Society and others, a vibrant experimental music scene.  With dozens of hours of recorded improvisations, look for material from the audimus players to appear in the project.

folio
Since starting school at MSU, I’ve been working with a group of grad students in a sort of performance collective we’re calling folio. We do live mashups and some originals and are now expanding into film projects (keep an eye out).  Because of the richness of my experiences with the group, the live performance aspects of my dissertation are going to include parts written for this ensemble specifically. Unfortunately, some members may have moved on (luckily for them to real jobs) by the time of the performance, but the richness of the experiences I’ve had with them will inform my music from now on. Members – Nate Bliton, Matt Schoendorff, Dave MacDonald, Ty Forquer and Meghan Merciers

Below is a video of folio performing a mashup of several pieces by Steve Reich and one song by the indie band The Books

Tangential to work with folio was the opportunity fellow band mate Nate Bliton and I had in the spring of 2008 to perform live improvisations with Dutch performing group Mo(ve)ment and Travers City native Royce Deans.  A combination of music, dance and painting, the best way to under stand this brilliant style of presentation is to watch the video below.

photography
I worked at Wolf Camera in Chattanooga during the 7 short years of my undergraduate.  When I began the job, I knew very little about photography or cameras.  By the time I left for grad school in New Mexico, I had been shooting weddings professionally for some time.  I don’t mean to suggest that this was an overly artful enterprise.  It was mainly about getting good pictures of the bride and being good with people.  The people who insist they look bad in picture usually do – because they’re squirming away from the camera and/or grimacing.  Being a good wedding photographer is as much about getting people to let you take good pictures of them as any technical knowledge.  I wouldn’t call any of my other photographic work during this time high art; however, I did shoot some nice pictures.  (You’ll get to see some if I ever get my hands on a film scanner) From my time at Wolf, I learned a great deal of practical knowledge and basic photographic techniques – IE – I know how to shoot nice pics of waterfalls, fireworks, sunsets, using flash effectively on people pictures etc.  I’m also quite good at explaining basic photographic effects and how to use your camera to make the changes you want – depth of field, perspective, motion blur, rear curtain shutter sync, filtering, contrast etc.  Enabling people to use these elements effectively was a big part of my job.

graphic design
While working with infradig ensemble, I became obsessed with making gig fliers.  This has grown to a sometimes overly time consuming practice of designing all of my own material as well as volunteering to design whatever flier, header, footer or whatever else is  needed for any organization I’m affiliated with.  While I have no degrees or schooling that “prove” I know how to design these things, my work is usually well received (perhaps because it’s free and takes the burden off of others in the group). Below is a sample of some of my designs. These were made for RCAH events and websites as well as for Meridian Winds were I have worked as an apprentice clarinet repair technician since 2006.  Also included are a few of the pages created for the recent reissue of Voicing, by University of Michigan saxophone professor Donald Sinta.  As you can see from the samples, I like to recycle my own material (like any good composer). Unfortunately, I’ve never bothered to keep a portfolio of my work until recently.