My Work with the Jersey City Arts Council

For the past few months I’ve been working with the newly formed JCAC on becoming a professionalized arts council and building significant grant funding for the arts in Jersey City. I’ve been working closely with the JCAC board, led by Robinson Holloway and Heather Warfel Sandler, as well as Marlene O’Haire Sandkamp and Rolando R. …

New Recording of The Burial of the Dead

Huge thanks and congratulations to The Sound Ensemble for making this recording of their live performance of the chamber orchestra version of The Burial of the Dead! They did a fantastic job. If you have a chance to see one of their shows, definitely do it. They choose great, interesting repertoire, and the playing is …

MAP Fund Makes First Awards With New Process

I’ve been working with the MAP Fund for the last few years as a consultant. Last week we announced this year’s round of grantees, including some amazing artists. Congratulations to all of you – go make art! MAP’s a great program. They’ve been around since the 80s giving grants to performing arts projects that don’t …

I was on a podcast!

No, I’m not talking about Actually Happening. I was a guest on Dennis Tobenski’s Music Publishing Podcast. I was episode 41. So close. Go give it a listen. We talked a lot about my work running product at New Music USA, creating the grantmaking platform and the launch of project grants. We talked about my …

So This is What Prufrock Sounds Like on a Bari…

I’ve been working with Ian Richter for, well, almost five years. That’s a weird thought. In that time he’s been a great collaborator. He’s talented, he’s dedicated, he’s funny, and he plays the hell out of my music. Just this morning he sent me a message saying “hey, so I tried this piece you wrote …

The Burial of the Dead with The Sound Ensemble

Yes, that’s the same picture of The Sound Ensemble. Jim Holt is a good photographer. The concert is this Saturday, 7 PM, at the Chapel at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. You should come out and hear it. Here’s the Live Music Project listing with more details. I went to rehearsal last night for …

I Wrote About My Work for Digital Impact at Stanford

I’ve been hanging around the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford a lot recently. It’s pretty much my favorite place to work on the intersection of technology and non-profits. Lucy Bernholz, who directs the lab, is totally brilliant and is fighting hard for the right things. Today Digital Impact, which is part of the lab, …

I’m Doing Something New at NMG This Year

I’m not giving the Baumol talk again. Sorry. It was a huge hit the last two years, and there’s still some great work to do on that line of research, and I am still giving the talk other places. But for New Music Gathering mark 3 in Bowling Green this May, I wanted to do …

Join The CASH Family

And by that, I mean pay CASH Music the $9 a month that you pay to any streaming service. If that’s all you need to hear, sign-up right away. If you want to hear more from CASH directly, read Jesse’s medium post. Here’s my pitch. You get music (really good music). You get access to …

First Dorico Project and an Orchestra Performance

I just finished my first project with Dorico, and I want to tell you about it. It’s a new orchestration of The Burial of the Dead for The Sound Ensemble; the concert is on March 4 in Seattle. Come hear it. The photo above, taken by James Holt, is of Bobby Collins, the music director …

Put Your Money Where My Mouth Is

Art isn’t a reflection of the culture we want to have, or a commentary on it, or anything secondary. It actually IS the culture. It matters. A lot. Art can’t save the world by itself, but we can’t save the world without art. So. Here are some great organizations I’m working with that you can …

User Testing, Play Testing, and Composing Music

My friends who mastermind the arts salon/dinner party series With Interesting People were kind enough to let me run an experiment on their guests last night. (Btw, the photo is of dates stuffed with goat cheese and almonds, alongside some mango & persimmon, all drizzled with honey. The chef, Phil Lacey, is pretty darn good.) …