Silent film music is a branch of dramatic music. The principles by which music responds to, reinforces, and amplifies drama on stage in opera or ballet apply equally to music which accompanies dramatic events on screen. At its finest, silent film music is a partner with the film, as sound and image work together to create dramatic expression. Composing and performing new music for silent film is an important area of my work. As Resident Film Accompanist at the National Gallery of Art and regularly-featured accompanist at the Library of Congress’ Mt. Pony Theater, I perform improvised piano and organ scores. I also create fully-notated scores for silent film for live performance and DVD release.

I like to create multi-layered pieces that comment upon and reference literature and visual art.

Text-Mobiles
I love building “text-mobiles,” collections of texts that comment upon and dialogue with one another.

These are often texts from different cultures, time periods, or languages, organized around a central topic. The texts are juxtaposed, placed on equal footing, showing each text in a new light.

Greco-Roman
Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as modern Greek culture, are particularly fascinating to me, and many of my pieces draw on this great tradition.

Visual Art
Many of my pieces interact intimately with painting and sculpture.