The overall quality of sound of a piece, most often indicated by the number of voices in the music and by the relationship between these voices.

Project

Darsána I

Darsana I is an interactive work for a pianist playing the Yamaha Disklavier (a piano fitted with MIDI technology in its keys). I connect the Disklavier to a computer and program software to interact with a pianist. The pianist plays material which acts as triggers to the Disklavier, and causes it to respond with material I have worked out.

Project

Constellation

Ronald Bruce Smith’s “Constellation for orchestra and live electronics,” produced in collaboration between Berkeley Symphony and UC Berkeley’s Center for Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT).

The World Premiere was given by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Kent Nagano on November 10, 2000; it was revised in 2003.

Project

Beside Oneself

Beside Oneself for viola and live electronics

Most people think what could I do, I think what shouldn't I do. What I should do perhaps is involved with the fact that I'm Jewish and what is known as Jewish paranoia. I don't feel comfortable enough to feel that everything is on my side and that it's going to work just the way I want it.
--Morton Feldman

Project

En círculo

En círculo (2008) for alto saxophone, clarinet/bass clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, double bass, percussion, and piano
duration, 18'
excerpt performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players

Listening to me practice the piano in this piece, my sister said, “I hear all sorts of natural sounds, things blowing, shaking, leaves rustling, waves rolling”.

Project

Threads

Threads
Electroacoustic sextet
Commissioned by the Paul Dresher Ensemble
Composed 2002 while a graduate student at UC Berkeley, realized at CNMAT
Premiered February 28, 2003 at ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA
viola samples performed by KURT ROHDE
bass clarinet samples performed by PETER JOSHEFF
Recorded on In Sound (Tzadik) by Paul Dresher Ensemble

KAREN BENTLEY violin

Project

Study No. 1

Study No. 1 is the first of a series of studies for piano and electronics. The piano’s role is to ‘trigger’ the electronic sounds at particular points in the score, an image of which is saved inside an MAX/MSP processing station. This gives the performer great timing flexibility.

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