If you find yourself in Ohio and would do anything for a sneak peak of my recital, its your lucky day! I’m premiering a new piece commissioned by the sciensemble in Fairchild Chapel tonight at 10PM. The six piece band is made up of some of the brightest new music performers in Oberlin — all of whom were excited about experimenting with me in the studio. We started off recording the percussionist, Christian Smith, playing a 12-minute improvisation for wood block (of all things) and classical guitar (which was smashed into multiple pieces, and had homemade circuits and contact mics glued all over the place — see above photo). I then recorded the other performers mimicking the the sounds of Christian’s recording. The resulting tape piece is that of 60 or so layers that have been chopped up, rearranged and sculpted into a 15-minute studio re-orchestration that follows the narrative of the original solo. Although Christian’s recorded improvisation rarely surfaces in the finished product, he will be playing along live tonight with the tape piece, a fitting bookend to the process.

Be sure to check out the other pieces on the program, three excellent new works by composers Eugene Kim, Porter James & Matthew Chamberlain. Hope to see you there!

P.S. For those of you who can’t make it out tonight, I’ll be presenting the piece in a masterclass tomorrow night with composer-in-residence Rand Steiger of University of California, San Diego at 7PM in Bibbins 223.