Piano Concerto: Solution (2019) : for piano and percussion ensemble

Commissioned by the McCormick Percussion Group; appears on the album Strings & Hammers.
The album is the gold medal winner of the 2020 Global Music Awards, and Piano Concerto: Solution is
the silver medal winner for "outstanding achievement" in protest/activism/social justice. Link here.

SCORE: click here.

Refraction Aberrance (2009/2010) : for cello obbligato and variable ensemble of piano, guitar, and harp

Premiered by Mathieu D'Ordine (cello), Morgan Black (harp), and Anthony R. Green (piano), this second
performance and recording by Ossia marks a continued relationship after winning the 2nd
Ossia International Composition Prize for the piece 3 Groups (2008, for chamber orchestra)

SCORE: click here.

Sacred Ground (... we can still feel the tremors ...) (2021) : for string quartet

To view, please click here and scroll down to the embedded video.

This string quartet was commissioned by Chamber Music Tulsa for their Greenwood Commissioning Project,
remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The piece was specifically meant to speak to young
audiences while capturing the depth of such a commemoration. It was premiered by the Thalea String Quartet.
Part of the funding for this project was made possible by a grant from the NEA. Consequently, I was
featured in an NEA publication. To read, please click here.

SCORE: click here.

... chiamo la Morte ... (2010 - 2023) : for mezzo, flute, oboe, clarinet, viola, and cello

To listen, please click here.

This labor of love composition was premiered by the Society for New Music players at Syracuse
University, March 2023. This performance was part of their Repair Works project, which became an
almost portrait concert. The related press to the event and my mini-residency can be found here.
Warning: mistakes!

SCORE: click here.

I was naked and you clothed me : Periferien Festival; Oslo, Norway; August 2022

Piece originally conceived during my residency at the perfocraZe International Artist Residency,
in Kumasi (Ghana), July 2021. This performance was a slight alteration of the original.

R A G E (by Renée C. Baker) : Emery Community Arts Center, November 2018

The composer Renée C. Baker is one of my strongest new music mentors, and she has granted
me permission to perform this piece with extreme interpretation. I have performed this work
now 6 times in three different countries, each time with a new approach. One performance
was with an orchestra in Chicago, with the composer as conductor.

Temporary Resuscitation : Art in Odd Places Project; Union Square, New York; March 2021

This performance piece was conceived over time and finalized in Berlin, where I premiered
it for a group exhibition at the Spike Gallery. The premiere performance was 2 hours.
This performance for the "Art in Odd Places: Normal project" was 3 hours, and more interactive.

Some recent accomplishments can be found below:

Boston Globe review of opera "It must all be done in darkness ..." CLICK HERE

Washington Post: 22 for '22: Composers and Performers to Watch This Year CLICK HERE

Finalists Announced for the 2023 Pellicciotti Opera Prize CLICK HERE

BU's CFA Magazine: Muse Feature CLICK HERE

While I do not have any video excerpts from classroom teaching or private lessons, below is
a selection of lectures/articles I have given/written that demonstrate my committment
to teaching and education.

The Black Psyche and the Voice: Interpretation and Composition in Performance Practice
Lecture-performance for "The Multivalent Voice in Transcultural Music-Making" conference,
April 2019, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey.

This talk started as an article for Positionen magazine in Berlin. I used this article,
with slight adjustments/additions, to give the keynote address of Castle of our Skins's
October 2022 residency at Boston University: Walker at 100 - celebrating the life
and music of George Walker.

What the optics of new music say to Black composers : NewMusicBox, November 2018
~ Writing this article as a bit of a parallel/adjacent response to an article written by the
New Renaissance Artist Elizabeth A. Baker, I did not expect these honest and carefully
chosen words to have the affect they had within the world of music. Educators have told
me they use this article as a foundation for their DEI courses, the article has been widely
read and shared on social media, and also republished in many digital and physical
collections, including Taking the Temperature: Crisis, Curating, and Musical Diversity,
published by OnCurating.org (Zuerich) (found here). Quotes from this article also appear
widely (example here)