Composition Tip: Reusing Old Material

June 7, 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

As a composer, sometimes it’s difficult to quickly come up with new ideas. Especially because new ideas require lots of hard work to transform into something amazing! For today’s composition tip, let’s look at how to revisit and reuse your old material to make it better than ever. Real Life Example: Heartbeat Here is my […]

A Contemporary Choir Concert

June 12, 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

I had the opportunity to attend a concert put on by the Oregon State University Chamber Choir this weekend, so today’s blog post is going to discuss some of the highlights from the show. There was so much wonderful music ranging from Bach to Penderecki that it was difficult to narrow down which pieces to […]

3 Lieder nach Trakl by Paweł Szymański, Three Dreams

March 31, 2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

The other day I was introduced to this piece – 3 Lieder nach Trakl, No. 1, Ein Traum I (Three Songs to Words by Trakl, No. 1, Three Dreams) by Polish composer Paweł Szymański (b. 1954). That’s a mouthful, I know. The first version I heard was this one, for soprano and piano: The first thing that struck […]

“Nebulae” by Kathryn Louderback

March 17, 2017.Reading time 13 minutes.

I did a thing, you guys. Here’s a video: I wrote the piece Nebulae for Oregon State University (OSU) conductor Dr. Chris Chapman and the OSU Chamber Winds Ensemble. We premiered it (I’m on the piano) on Friday, February 24th, 2017, in the Memorial Union lounge as part of the university’s Music á la Carte program. […]