RECENT SOLO GUITAR WORKS

Nocturne For People Who Can’t Sleep (2022) (5:00)

Set piece for the 2022 Yale School of Music Guitar Department auditions.
Written for Benjamin Verdery.
Difficulty: Advanced

Based on an untitled excerpt from the Book of Hours by the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the piece is structured in hours of a night of insomnia. It begins at midnight, and progresses hour by hour until 6:00 A.M. The outer sections are slow and brooding and desperate, while the middle section is racing with anxiety and sometimes furious. The piece concludes with time slowly stretching apart as we either drift off to sleep, or feel the divine presence of God granting us rest, or both.

Nail-Biter (2024) (3:30)

Commissioned as the set piece for the 2024 5th annual James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Difficulty: Advanced

Nail-Biter is inspired by the mutual love that James Stroud and I have for the American mountains, having both spent substantial time in Glacier National Park. The piece uses a rondo form with a recurring bluegrass/blues theme, as well as open-string arpeggios that evoke the free-flowing style of banjo music from the Appalachian mountain region.

Into the Light (2023) (3:30) - For solo guitar

Inspired by the Old Testament’s Book of Micah.
An atmospheric piece, rich in harmonics and with flashes of virtuosity.
Commissioned by the Guitar Foundation of America
for teenage virtuoso Micah Montgomery to premiere at the June 2023
Guitar Foundation of America Convention in NYC.

Published by Productions d’Oz.

14 Études on the Music of Black Americans (2021) (25:00)

Commissioned by Cleveland Classical Guitar Society
Premiered in its entirety on Juneteenth 2022 in Cleveland’s Dunham Tavern Museum by numerous students and Thomas Flippin.

Difficulty: Beginner-Intermediate-Advanced
Duration: ~25 minutes.

Includes a lengthy introduction about the melodies chosen from collections of African-American spirituals and how this project is contextualized in American history so that students of all ages and races can benefit.

Broken into three sections of increasing skill level, the etudes take students from the beginning level of simple melodies similar to suzuki book 1, all the way through advanced repertoire. The first two beginner works are also expanded into optional trios so that beginners can play together from an early phase. Many works also include a simplified version and a more complex version so that teachers can assign the appropriate version to each individual student. All the etudes were based around melodies created by enslaved or recently emancipated African-Americans.

American Soul (2021) (4:00)

Endless Loop, Endless Days (2020) (5:00) - For Theorbo or (classical guitar) and Loop Pedal.

CHAMBER MUSIC

Childhood (2023) - 7:00

For Guitar Orchestra or Guitar Quartet

Commissioned by Peabody Preparatory for the 15th annual Fret Fest at Johns Hopkins University. Premiered by Peabody Institute guitar faculty, advanced preparatory students, and the studio of Manuel Barrueco under the conducting of Julian Dutra Aniceto. The festival was supported by the Augustine Foundation.

The piece centers on the complicated history of Baltimore, the Hopkins family, and the reconciliation of their Quaker faith and his grandfather’s freeing of children he enslaved.

Wrecked (2024) - 6:00

For Guitar Orchestra or Guitar Quartet
Commissioned by the New York City Classical Guitar Society with support from the Augustine Foundation.

Wrecked is inspired by the car accident I survived on August 5, 2022 after someone ran a stop sign and T-boned me into an improbable 360 degree spin. I was left temporarily deaf in one ear, bruised, bloodied, limping, and en route to the emergency room. I spent nine months dealing with the aftermath. The piece revolves around three days related to the event.

The Lost Village of Seneca (2023) - 8:00

For string quartet.

Commissioned through a joint venture by the New York Philharmonic, Juilliard, and the American Composers Forum.
Premiered by Juilliard students alongside members of the NY Philharmonic at Mother AME Zion church in Harlem.

Based on historical records about the creation of Central Park in NYC through the eviction of the Seneca Village community. Featured on WNYC radio, Gothamist, and at Chelsea Factory in NYC for a Juilliard showcase with the Ivalas Quartet.

The Darkness is God: Four Prayers from Rilke (2023) - 10:00

For soprano and classical guitar.
Written for the Olson / De Cari duo.
Based on deeply meditative and melancholic selections from Austrian poet Rainier Maria Rilke’s Book of Hours.
I. I am a City
II. You, Darkness
III. My Life is Not
IV. I Come Home

A Dark Winter in a Lost Year (2021) - 6:00

The Covenant: Passacaglia for Minneapolis (2021) - 4:00

Delmar Boulevard Blues: (2022) - 4:00

Beyond Ferguson: (2014) - 5:00

Based on a melody from slain teenager Michael Brown's music and a quote by W.E.B. Du Bois.
Premiered at the 10th St. Art Gallery in St. Louis Feb. 2015

• Original Version (2014, rev.2019): For Guitar Quartet or Orchestra (Easy/Intermediate). Written for student guitarists in St. Louis (Ferguson).
  

• Remix 1 (2015): Guitar Duo (Advanced). Arranged for Duo Noire.
  

• Remix 2 (2016, rev. 2019): Guitar Trio (Advanced). Arranged for the Kithara Project.

100% of your donation will go to support the St. Louis and Cleveland classical guitar societies who are providing instruction to low-income children, and to the Guitar Foundation of America’s new mentorship and educational equity programs. If you are at an institution with a budget or are a professional ensemble please donate at least $20 for the score and parts as if it were the purchase price. If you are a student with a limited budget, the score is free.

Ten Kingdoms (2014) - For Guitar Duo (8:00)

Based on the writings of Bartolome de las Casas.
Difficulty: Advanced

Premiered in part with Madeleine Davidson at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Oct. 2012,
And in part with Christopher Mallett at Sheldon Concert Hall and Placitas New Mexico (2013-2014).

I. Sail (“Those that arriv'd ...from the remotest parts of Spain, and who pride themselves in the Name of Christians.”)

II. Trudge (“Inhabitants would soon have wrought away their lives by hard working in the Mines, so that [the Spanish Prefect] might accumulate Gold by their bodies and Souls.")

III. Breathe (“There can be nothing more cruel and detestable than the tyrannical usage of the Spainiards towards the Indians in their Pearl Fishing...If [they] rest themselves the Hangman is immediately upon them in a canoe... beating them [and] dragging them by the hair underwater, that they may drudge again.”

EARLY PIECES

A Soldier's Sonata (2007 rev. 2020) - 9:00

Neverland (2008) - 8:00

A musical narrative based on a dream.
Difficulty: Advanced

I. Summons; II. Feast; III. Game
Listen on Flippin’s album: Something New

Premiered in part by Dr. Julie Goldberg, Vandercook College of Music, Chicago 2007.
Premiered in full at Yale University, 2008. Originally published by Clear Note Publications.

Digital PDF Download

Adrift: Streams of Thought (2005) - 7:00

I. Lines Written in Early Spring; II. Annabel Lee
For guitar and soprano. Texts by Edgar Allan Poe and William Wordsworth.
Premiered in full by Dr. Julie Goldberg and Annie Picard, North Park University 2007.
Winner of the University of Chicago Olga and Paul Menn Composition Prize.