(written by Jennifer, November 2007)
I was born in Queens, NY but now live in sunny, summery Appleton, WI and teach composition at Lawrence Conservatory. I’m currently working on an opera inspired by Megan Marshall’s Pulitzer-Prize finalist, The Peabody Sisters. Librettist Elyssa East and I are focusing on the secret love-triangle between the dashing and brooding Nathaniel Hawthorne and two of the Peabody Sisters — the spectacularly intellectual transcendentalist Elizabeth and talented painter Sophia, who is plagued by crippling migraines. The opera began as a project associated with The American Opera Project’s “Composers & the Voice” workshops.
I’ve received awards and fellowships from the American Composers Orchestra, the Aspen Music Festival, Meet the Composer, the Millay Colony and others and I was a finalist for the National Symphony Orchestra’s American Residency Commission in North Carolina. My music has been performed by artists including pulsoptional, Robert Black, Capital M, Innovata Brass and Dan Trueman and has been featured at such festivals and venues as the American Dance Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the American Opera Projects Space, Duke/UNC Milestones Festival, Columbia University, Tufts University, Adelphi University and Vassar College, as well as rock clubs, cabarets, bars and alternative spaces internationally.
I often write for unusual instrumental combinations — the result of my years as the pianist for pulsoptional, “North Carolina’s Band of Composers”, which boasts the highly unusual instrumentation of oboe, bassoon, violin, two electric guitars, percussion and piano. pulsoptional’s eponymous debut album features my piece how terrible orange. Read Joshua Nemith’s album review here.
Other upcoming projects include Diagnostic Tools for alto saxophone and sampler, written for the phenomenal Steven Jordheim and Motion to Table for the exciting new music ensemble Quorum Chamber Arts Collective.
The 411: I studied composition with Anthony Brandt, Stephen Jaffe, Anthony Kelley, Scott Lindroth and John McDonald at Tufts University (BA, 1997) and Duke University (AM, 2001; Ph.D., 2005) and with Steven Mackey and Christopher Rouse at Aspen. I am currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Lawrence University. I was formerly a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow and in a previous life taught at Duke University and the Duke University String School. I live with my significant other Charles, our dog, Persephone and the krazy kat, Sonya.