My work as a creative musician encompasses composition, improvisation, and collaboration with other artists. I started out my undergraduate education as a composition major in the School of Music at the University of Victoria, where I studied with John Abram, Martin Arnold, and Michael Longton. After following Rudolf Komorous to Simon Fraser University, I encountered Javanese gamelan, which set me on a more varied career path. Since completing my MA at Wesleyan University, while shifting my attention toward scholarship, I have continued to work with other composers. Most recently, I have pursued my long-standing interest in improvisation as a member of the Cornell Avant-Garde Ensemble (CAGE).
follow (1) (2004)
For two rebab. 12 minutes.
Performed at the Yogyakarta Contemporary Music Festival, Indonesia, September 5, together with walk.
klunk, whir (2004)
For gamelan instruments (four pencon the size and register of kethuk, two ceng-ceng kopyak or four simlar cymbals, three amplified rebab or two amplified rebab and one theremin), seven performers. 8 minutes.
Composed for Sekar Anu, an ensemble of four North American and four Indonesian composer/performers.
First performed at the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival, July 2005.
Score (PDF, 221 KB)
Audio (recording by Sekar Anu, mp3, 22.4 MB)
for a while, in and/or around a resonant space (2004)
Performance/installation for carillon or chimes, other pitched metal percussion, wind instruments, indoors and/or outdoors. Indeterminate duration.
Two realizations, one outdoors for chime, tubular bells, and three clarinets, and one indoors, for chimes, glockenspiel, and three clarinets, presented May 1 as part of For a Long Time: A Festival of Music, Sound Intallations, and Ideas, Wesleyan University.
walk (2004)
For kethuk, kenong, and two pairs of finger-cymbals. 12-20 minutes.
Performed at Wesleyan University, April 22, and at the Yogyakarta Contemporary Music Festival, Indonesia, September 5, together with follow (1).
drift (2002)
An installation piece using samples of Javanese gamelan for the 16-channel speaker environment of Engine 27, a sound art gallery in New York. Indeterminate duration.
Created in collaboration with programmer R. Luke DuBois using the software MAX/MSP. Presented on three consecutive weekends in September, 2002.
as time is stretched... (2001)
A performance/installation for Javanese gamelan instruments and other sound sources (CDs of prerecorded material, amplified bottles).
Presented May 5 in the World Music Hall of Wesleyan University, Middletown CT, as a thesis project towards the degree Master of Arts.
sinuous, supple (peculiar) (2001)
For Javanese rebab and/or shakuhachi, koto and Javanese gender.
Commissioned by Ryuko Mizutani
shift, slip, slide, slump (altered) (2000)
For clarinet, soprano saxophone, cello, percussion and piano. 12 minutes.
Composed for Ensemble Symposium. Premiered February 23, St. Andrews Wesley Church, Vancouver.
Score (PDF, 881 KB)
trickle, dribble, teem (1999)
For Sundanese rebab, amplified bottle and water, and pre-recorded water sounds.
a long wave (slow) and a tune (nebulous), standing
For clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano. 11 minutes.
Composed for Standing Wave. Premiered April 11, Vancouver East Cultural Centre.
all work no play makes Sylvester a grumpy boy (1998)
For tin whistle, accodion, tuba, Irish bouzouki, guitar, Irish percussion (bodhran and bones), percussion, and tape. 15 minutes.
thinly, roundly (1998)
For two dan bau (Vietnamese one string zither), two Javanese gender, and gongs. 16 minutes.
Premiered January 29, Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver, as part of Vancouver Pro Musica's Further East Further West.
Le Tombeau de Ludd (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the phone) (1997)
Multimedia performance piece (a pseudo-documentary on Luddism and telephony), for slides, LP's, tape, computer synthesized voice, kitchen appliances, and toy animals. 45 minutes.
Presented May 12, Havana Performance Space, Vancouver, as part of Vancouver Pro Musica's Cheap Illusions.
three blue lotus (1995)
For bowed gender and kendang. 15 minutes.
Composed to accompany one section of an evening length work by dancer/choreographer Bambang Mbesur, presented at Taman Budaya Surakarta, Indonesia.
whining horses eat more HEY doncha no (1994)
For Javanese gamelan instruments, eight performers. 9 minutes.
Composed for a workshop project organized by English composer Adrian Lee, also involving four faculty members (Rasito, Joko Purwanto, Teti) of the performing arts academy STSI Surakarta, Indonesia.
Subsequently performed by Gamelan Madu Sari at Vancouver New Music's 25th Anniversary Party and at Gamelan Summit ‘97 Toronto.
Score (PDF, 131 KB)
knock, grind (and a long standing wave) (1993)
For clarinet, cello, piano and percussion. 20 minutes.
Commissioned by Vancouver Pro Musica. Premiered by Standing Wave.
heavy rain
For Javanese gamelan and Japanese taiko ensembles. 25 minutes.
Composed in collaboration with members of Uzume Taiko. Premiered April 18, Vancouver East Cultural Centre, as part of Vancouver New Music's Riptides.
hanging from branches (1992)
Performance Installation for 6 to 12 performers playing 8 to 12 Javanese gongs hung from branches of trees in a public space.
Presented twice in Trout Lake Park, Vancouver, once as part of Public Dream's (a Vancouver celebration arts organization) Illuminaries Lantern Festival, 1993.
honeyed, brutal (bronze) (1991)
For Javanese gamelan, 12 musicians. 15 minutes.
Premiered November 30, The Glass Slipper, Vancouver, as part of Vancouver Pro Musica's Sonic Boom Festival of Composers.
L'Après-midi d'un FAUNE (1990)
For Javanese gamelan and voices, 12 musicians. 25 minutes.
Composed for a collaboration with choreographer Steven O'Connell and filmmaker Anne-Marie Fleming.
towards, but no closer to, an appreciation of the infinite (1990)
For piano, vibraphone and organ. 25 minutes.
Presented by Vancouver Pro Musica at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver.
seven scenes after Joyce (1990)
For baritone, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello.
A setting of texts derived from James Joyce's Dubliners.
eight days in April (1988)
For solo piano. 13 minutes.
Score (PDF, 170 KB)
one moon (1988)
For three violas. 8.5 minutes.
Precipitation (1988)
For three flutes. 6 minutes.