Compositions

This is my piece for this semester's "Jazz Composer's Orchestra" concert at MSM! This as well as my arrangement of Wayne Shorter's "Penelope" will also be performed at Dizzy's Jazz Club in NYC as a part of this concert program! This was an amazing band and I'm so thankful to been able to have my own original work performed and transformed and brought to life by these musicians. This tune is "Phantasm" which I originally wrote as a through-composed quartet composition in my undergrad. It features Tal Kalman on Tenor Sax, Miles Mindlin on Guitar, and Bruno Tzinas on Trombone.

This semester at MSM in completion of my Master's degree I gave an hour long recital of original big band music! This was an amazing band and I'm so thankful to been able to have my own original work performed and transformed and brought to life by these musicians. This tune is "Next Week," which I first wrote as a part of my "Tune a Day" social media challenge, where I wrote a tune every day in December. I then arranged it for a Virginia-based big band last summer, and now premiered in NYC! It features Evan Amoroso on Bass Trombone, Caleb Davis on Trumpet, and myself on Guitar.

This semester at MSM in completion of my Master's degree I gave an hour long recital of original big band music! This was an amazing band and I'm so thankful to been able to have my own original work performed and transformed and brought to life by these musicians. This tune is "Driftwood," my most recent composition at the time of the recital! It features Marty Scott on Trombone, and an intro by Elisee Ngbo on Piano.

This semester at MSM in completion of my Master's degree I gave an hour long recital of original big band music! This was an amazing band and I'm so thankful to been able to have my own original work performed and transformed and brought to life by these musicians. This tune is "Cyan," which I originally wrote for my quartet in undergrad. My professor at MSM Mike Holober described it as a "character study," so for the big band version I decided to expand on that idea. It features Estes Cantarero-George on Trombone, Bryan Cowan on Bari Sax, Danno Petersen on Drums, and Bruno Tzinas on Trombone.

This semester at MSM in completion of my Master's degree I gave an hour long recital of original big band music! This was an amazing band and I'm so thankful to been able to have my own original work performed and transformed and brought to life by these musicians. This tune is "Luxury Car" which was a tune I wrote during my "tune a day" social media challenge, where I tried to write a tune every day in the month of December. It features Mackenzie McCarthy on Tenor Sax, and Elisee Ngbo on Piano, and Matt Stark on Alto Sax.

This semester at MSM in completion of my Master's degree I gave an hour long recital of original big band music! This was an amazing band and I'm so thankful to been able to have my own original work performed and transformed and brought to life by these musicians. This tune is "Tidewater," which I originally wrote for my trio at JMU. It features Chris Ramirez on Bass, Joey Curreri on Trumpet, and Ian Weidmann on Alto Sax.

This semester at MSM in completion of my Master's degree I gave an hour long recital of original big band music! This was an amazing band and I'm so thankful to been able to have my own original work performed and transformed and brought to life by these musicians. This tune is "QUIET!" which was the first big band composition I wrote while at MSM. It features Austin Ford on Trumpet, Adam Lamoureux on Tenor Sax, and Elisee Ngbo on Piano.

I was recently given the amazing opportunity to both play in as well as arrange a and adapt 3 selections for the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra's "Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Wayne Shorter" Concert, featuring Ingrid Jensen and Melissa Aldana! This arrangement is of a tune off of Wayne's 1965 album "Etcetera." The piece is scored for standard jazz big band instrumentation, is conducted by Jim Saltzman and features Ingrid Jensen on trumpet and Christian Holm-Svendsen on tenor sax.

I was recently given the amazing opportunity to both play in as well as arrange a and adapt 3 selections for the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra's "Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Wayne Shorter" Concert, featuring Ingrid Jensen and Melissa Aldana! This arrangement is of a tune off of Wayne's 1985 album "Atlantis." The piece is scored for standard jazz big band instrumentation with 2 optional F Horn parts, is conducted by Jim Saltzman and features soprano saxophone, played by Samuel Priven.

Check out the premier recording of an original composition of mine entitled "Next Week!" Composed for Shawn Davern's "Sages of Future Soul," a semi-virtual big band, coming together for our second live recording session at Clementine Café in Harrisonburg Virginia. This piece started as a short TikTok/social media video I made in December of 2022, during a "tune a day" challenge I was doing where I wrote a short jazz tune every day for a month. This tune was written looking forward to the end of the semester and winter break, and so for the large ensemble version I wanted to convey the feelings of excitement, nervousness, and happiness surrounding seeing someone you love for the first time in a while. I hope you enjoy!

I was given the amazing opportunity to both play in as well as arrange a student composition for the Manhattan School of Music Hugh Masekela scholars South African jazz orchestra, featuring Jaleel Shaw! This arrangement is of a student student composition "Kemet" composed by Nhlanhla Mahlangu, which title roughly translates to "land of the black" or "the black land." The piece is scored for standard jazz big band instrumentation, is conducted by myself and features solos by Chris Ramirez on bass, Jaleel Shaw on alto sax and Danno Peterson on drums. I hope you enjoy!

This is the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Composers’ Orchestra premiering of my original piece for large jazz ensemble, "Fragment." The piece is based on a poem of the same name by the Greek poet Sappho, to which I added additional lyrics of my own. In terms of material, the piece is conceptually based upon melodic fragmentation, as well as the meaning of the future, and what it means to be remembered. The piece is scored for standard jazz big band instrumentation, is conducted by Jim Saltzman and features vocals by Martina Barta and solos from Cam Shave on Flugelhorn, Cole Peterson on Alto Sax, and myself on Guitar.

Big Band Arrangement of "I Know You Know" by Esperanza Spalding. Performed at the JMU Jazz Band's final concert in spring 2019. Recording and mixing done by Tom Carr, and JMU's in house sound personnel.