Works

Three Romances is an orchestral arrangement of pieces for solo piano by the 19th century pianist and composer Clara Schumann (1819-1896). The three pieces span a time period from her days as a young touring piano virtuoso (the opening movement) to one of her last published compositions (the second movement). The Prelude of the final movement was composed during the time that she and her husband Robert were studying the fugues of J.S. Bach.

In Plain Air is a one-movement fantasy based on a lyrical melody I decided not to use in the slow movement of my Divertimento for flute and viola. After the lyrical beginning, a fast section expands on the melody. In Plain Air was premiered by the Shreveport Symphony (Michael Butterman, Music Director) in 2015.

The word “filé” has two meanings for the composer. Most people from south Louisiana will know that filé is ground sassafras and that it is used as a seasoning in gumbo. The word also means “spun” or “thread”—a perfect allusion to the “spinning out” of the work’s opening chord to create the various motives and melodies found in this piece.

Filé was premiered by the Baton Rouge Symphony (Timothy Muffitt, Music Director) in November of 2003. It was the winner of the 2005 Truman State University/MACRO Society Composers Competition.

Clara is based on excerpts of music by the 19th-century pianist and composer Clara Schumann (1819-1896), wife of Robert Schumann (1810-1856). Melodies and excerpts of chord progressions from three of her compositions are used: the Piano Concerto (1833-1836), Valses Romantiques (for solo piano, 1835), and the late Marsch (for piano four-hands, 1879). My intent in this piece was not to arrange Clara’s music, but to reimagine it in a way that places her wonderful ideas in a new and different context. Clara was premiered by the Baton Rouge Symphony (Timothy Muffitt, Music Director) in 2016.

Canray was commissioned by the Louisiana Sinfonietta and makes use of common fiddling techniques found in the music of south Louisiana Cajuns. The work uses these fiddling techniques as the basis for a new composition which only briefly alludes to one Cajun/Creole melody.