composer
instrumentalist
new media artist

Thanks to our good friend Wilmer Chan, Erik Schoster and I went on a short weekend trip to Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin to play some electro-acoustic music and talk about our working methods. This was a special concert for us since we had both attended the conservatory and were eager to see how the program had changed. During our down time we were able to attend a senior composition recital and, a day later, a New Music on Sundays concert featuring pieces by the majority of the composition studio. I was thoroughly impressed with the sophistication and ingenuity each piece exhibited as well as humbled by the sheer precociousness of the students. All of the pieces were well written, and many of them overcame, if not united, the typical diametric approaches of writing in academic pursuit and writing to express an emotion. I’m fairly certain my work wasn’t nearly as mature when I was that age. I’m fairly certain it still isn’t.

I returned to NY musically rejuvenated. For three days I was back in an environment where the perceived success of a live performance didn’t hinge on an ensemble’s ability to make the audience dance, and good ideas with hard work went much further than a silly costume or stage prop. That, coupled with a Wisconsin starry sky and silent streets, created a motivational powder keg. As soon as I got home I cleaned my studio, bought some new pencils and manuscript paper, and started planning some new pieces. Sometimes I start to think that I create music out of habit and have forgotten why I do it in the first place. The stock response to a problem like this is that I create out of passion, but like curse words, if I utter this mantra often enough it loses meaning. The older I get, the more I realize I need short trips to the midwest like this to remind myself of the intangible reasons I listen.