Artistic Collaborations
I have stimulating and productive working relationships with several organizations in the DC Metro area.
Cantate Chamber Singers
I serve as Keyboard Artist for this 32-member auditioned chorus, recognized for innovative programming and a champion of new music. Twice I have been Composer in Residence with Cantate, as well, and have created four works premiered by the chorus: A Crown of Stars, The Wind, It is Time.
cantate.org
Cantate Chamber Singers / Photo Credit: Jenny Nordstrom
Atlas Performing Arts Center
I am Curator and Resident Music for the Silent Film Series, which was in its 4th season in spring 2020 prior to the COVID-19 epidemic. The first four seasons have featured silent film in a variety of genres (comedy, drama, horror) as well as special guests (live actors reading intertitles for a family-freindly PETER PAN; a live ensemble for a program of silent comedy shorts; a theatrical production, The Comic Roach, part of Intersections Festival). In connection with The Lost World, which featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs, I organized a stop-motion workshop with area artist Mj Neuberger.
atlasarts.org
Atlas Performing Arts Center
National Gallery of Art
I am Resident Film Accompanist for the National Gallery of Art. In addition to providing live piano accompaniment to scores of silent films, I conducted the National Gallery of Art Orchestra in the premiere of my score for Buster Keaton’s classic comedy, THE GENERAL, and have collaborated with NY-based artist Sharon Louden to provide original scores for NGA-presented programs of abstract and digital animation, performing solo and with percussionists Barry Dove and Nobue Matsuoka. Among other NGA-related activities, I brought a student new-music ensemble from Catholic University to perform in connection with a Philip Corner work, “Every Day and Every Night Music,” and accompanied a program of French silents at the Embassy of France.
nga.gov
National Gallery of Art
Library of Congress
Since 2008, I have been a regularly-featured accompanist at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper, VA., accompanying silents on the Walker theater organ in the 200-seat Mt. Pony Theater, as well as appearing with the Snark Ensemble, which I co-founded with composer Maurice Saylor. A highlight of my work with the LOC have included creating a score for a newly-rediscovered 1924 newsreel showing footage of the Washington Senators’ World Series triumph, which appeared in the New York Times.
In 2017, working with the only known surviving print of a film called WHISPERING SHADOWS, located at LOC, the Library scanned and prepared the 28mm film for DVD release on Undercrank Productions (link to Whispering Shadows DVD). My score, recorded on the Mt. Pony Theatre’s organ, was the first public recording made on that instrument.
I have also participated as accompanist and presenter at the annual Mostly Lost silent film identification workshop since its founding.
loc.gov
Library of Congress’ Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper, VA.