Ensemble Projects
University of Pittsburgh Gamelan Ensemble Spring Concert, April 22, 2021
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In 2017 I convened an ensemble of musicians experienced in both experimental music and gamelan to perform some works from the 1970s by composers of Gamelan Son of Lion, an experimental composers' collective based in Manhattan. These works constitute some of the earliest repertoire sometimes referred to as "American gamelan." I directed the ensemble, chose the repertoire, and adapted some of the Javanese-style cipher notation for many of the ensemble members only familiar with Sundanese cipher notation. The arrangement of Backtracking Braid also reflects the background in Sundanese gamelan in our application of Kendang Sunda (the drumming), and our gong/kempul pattern. These works, although composed for gamelan instruments, are non-traditional and strongly reflect their composers' role in the 1970s experimental arts scene in downtown Manhattan.
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Musicians: Jay Arms, Brian Baumbusch, Sam Cushman, Ed Garcia, Zachary Hejny, Lucas Helland, Jon Myers, Zeki Schwartz, and Emerson Sebastia.
Guest artist Jenny DeBouzek, director of Gamelan Encantada 
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In 2013 I arranged for a residency of composer-improviser Malcolm Goldstein at the University of California at Santa Cruz as part of the April in Santa Cruz Festival of New Music. To bolster his visit, I organized a mixed ensemble to perform Goldstein's hour-long composition The Seasons: Vermont for improvising chamber ensemble and magnetic tape collage. Goldstein's graphic score is designed to inspire the performers to improvise in a fashion that reflects the textures and contours of the natural sounds he recorded over the course of a year in his home state of Vermont. Each movement uses a different form of notation and features sounds form the appropriate season. Although one of Goldstein's most famous works, The Seasons: Vermont is rarely performed in its entirety, and this performance marks the first since the work's premiere in 1983.
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