After a decade of living in Nashville and working in the music industry, I was ready for a change…not just professionally but for our family as well. After the birth of our second daughter in 2005, we wanted to be closer to family, reduce our cost of living, and try to pursue making music more […]
If you listen to my music, you’ll quickly recognize that it is stylistically diverse. This is because I believe that defining one’s music mainly by style is very limiting. Whenever I sit down to compose a new piece, I try to consider which sort of style(s) will be most effective to communicate the intended message. […]
I think that music is most effective when it intersects three crucial areas: truth, beauty and goodness. This “artistic triumvirate” has been widely discussed since ancient times. Much of the music I hear, even in the Christian music industry, tends to touch one or two of these areas, but not all three. I personally feel […]
I often think of my music as an “equal opportunity offender.” I try to defy standard conventions of style. Since common labels like “contemporary” and “traditional” just don’t seem to apply, some people have difficulty classifying my music. Evangelicals think that I am composing traditional, academic music while academics think I am composing warm-fuzzy evangelical […]
In each choral/vocal piece I compose, I am looking for a musical context that will most effectively communicate the message of the text. In purely instrumental music, my goal is still to effectively communicate, but in a more abstract way. Perhaps Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best: “Music is the universal language of the mind.” […]
When I was young, I spent hours listening to the radio and vinyl records that I would check out from the library. In addition to listening to music, I would also play the pieces I heard on a small electronic keyboard. I was most fascinated by the music of J.S. Bach. I particularly enjoyed his […]