Norfolk Letters are settings of the letters contained in the Norfolk Armed Forces Memorial. Erected in the summer of 1998 at Town Point Park in Downtown Norfolk, the Armed Forces Memorial consists of 22 cast bronze letters scattered along the waterfront as if blown by the wind. Artists Maggie Smith and James Cutler curated a collection of letters conveying diverse emotional experiences, offering a glimpse into the humanity of the soldier's experience, and the effects of their service on loved ones back home.

The letters featured in the memorial were written by fallen soldiers to their loved ones, which allows the reader (and listener) insight to both sides of the relationship between a service person and those that they leave behind; the dates of these letters span the entire history of conflicts involving the United States, ranging from the Revolutionary War to the War in Afghanistan. Despite the time separating the first and last of these letters, all of these soldiers describe similar circumstances and experiences, in a way that — besides some differences in vernacular — these letters almost do not date themselves.

When complete, Norfolk Letters (Books 1 and 2) will contain 22 songs and 10 solo piano pieces offering ca. 3 hours of musical memorial to all those who sacrificed their lives in service to their nation. It is my hope that this music lives as a tribute to them and to their loved ones back home.

Norfolk Letters: Book 1 was commissioned by a consortium of  35 singers, pianists, and art song enthusiasts, led by lead commissioner baritone Ross Tamaccio.

Premiered on November 11th, 2018 — a date marking not only Veterans Day, but also the centennial of the end of the First World War — I am sorry that it has come to this is an acknowledgement of the importance and realities of veterans healthcare. Scored for offstage voice and piano, I am sorry that it has come to this revolves around its electronic soundtrack, which focuses on a recording of twenty-two individual voices reading excerpts from a Veteran's suicide note documenting crippling mental and physical illnesses. These voices are a manifestation of the statistic that — at the time of this veteran's death — twenty-two veterans took their lives each day. Additionally, the diverse collection of voices helps to provide not only a textured soundscape, but also drive home the idea that this letter could have been written by any service person. The soundtrack begins with the “presidential chatter” of the five U.S. presidents who were in office during the lifetime of the individual who wrote the letter; the overlapping ramblings are the boastings of government achievements with respect to veterans healthcare. However, this flaunting of government successes is almost immediately contrasted with the reciting of the note left by the veteran, who states that the government has abandoned them, and that receiving proper health care is “too much to ask from a regime built upon the idea that suffering is noble, and relief is just for the weak.” Accompanying the centerpiece of a soundtrack is the piano, whose main role is to not only add live harmonies that settle with the additional sounds of the track, but also provide harmonic context for the offstage voice that interjects with selected chants drawn from the Latin Requiem Mass — the Mass for the dead.

The latest figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs show there were more than 6,000 Veteran suicides each year from 2001 to 2021 (the last year of available data). In 2021, the suicide rate was 2x greater for Veterans than for non-Veteran adults. As a friend recently said, “it is striking how many of our country’s most fundamental issues are, or ought to be, nonpartisan matters of shared human concern.” This is one of those issues.

On the Poetic Muse sets poetry by George Moses Horton. Born a slave on a North Carolina tobacco plantation, during his teenage years, he taught himself to read and began creating poetry. Unable to write, he spoke his poetry to crowds at the weekly Chapel Hill farmers market. Popular with University of North Carolina students (who would often pay Horton for his poems and lend him books), he caught the attention of Caroline Lee Whiting Hentz (author and wife of a UNC professor). With her help, Horton’s collection of poetry, The Hope of Liberty, was published in 1829. With its publishing, Horton became the first black man to publish a book in the South. With his earnings, Horton hoped to buy his freedom, but his attempts were repeatedly denied despite public support. Following the Civil War, after almost 70 years a slave, Horton settled in Philadelphia for at least 17 years of freedom before his death in the early 1880s.

On the Poetic Muse was commissioned by The Frederick Chorale.

My setting of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Amy Lowell's "To A Friend" and George Moses Horton's "Farewell to Frances" were written for Ellen Clayton and premiered by Baltimore Choral Arts Society in 2019. Ellen, the long-time choral manager of Baltimore Choral Arts represents all the characteristics that Lowell hopes remain true in her friend. Her compassion, commitment, integrity, empathy, grace, and work ethic are traits that (as Lowell suggests) often vanish, or exist only as an idealized image of the person. It is the rare, true friend that embodies the dream of the person Lowell imagines. Ellen Clayton is one of these rare individuals, and for that, To A Friend is fondly dedicated to her by me and Baltimore Choral Arts.

Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, National Book Award-winning A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science. This is most evident in her lesser-known poetry. Although a relevant and powerful Advent text celebrating the infant Jesus, "Into the Darkest Hour" reflects significant political, social, and cultural concerns. Composed in the late summer of 2016 amidst a tumultuous American presidential election, L’Engle’s words seemed not only fitting for the coming Advent season, but an important representation of what many Americans were experiencing, no matter their individual political views. The piece was revised in the fall of 2023, with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and war in Ukraine as its backdrop. The work unfolds mirroring the organization of L’Engle’s text – alternating between political commentary and the repose of the Advent season. The work concludes with the arrival of the infant in a lulling manger offering a hopeful resolution to L’Engle’s words “when all things fall apart”.

Into the Darkest Hour was commissioned as part of the Composer-in-Residence program at St. David's Episcopal Church, Baltimore. 

Impossible Season is a set of four songs on poetry by Dana Gioia. Each song was composed independently yet all connect through interlacing themes of relationship and absence. I was introduced to Dana’s poetry in 2010. Upon reading his works I was immediately taken by the narrative style of his writing, his sense of phrasing, and his vivid word choices. For the first time, I felt I found a poet who wrote how I would write if I had such a talent.

In the spring of 2010 I was asked to compose a song setting Dana’s poetry, and to participate in a panel discussion on music and words together with Dana and country music songwriter/producer Brad Crisler (songs for Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn, and many others). Brad too was asked to write a song using Dana’s poetry. The panel discussion included conversations about the process of composition and the union of text and music from the perspectives of a popular music songwriter and a “classical” composer. I eagerly read every poem provided to me and was faced with the challenging task of choosing only one (needless to say a collection of songs was inevitable). Without consultation, by some mysterious coincidence, Brad and I chose the same poem – “The End of a Season”. The result was a compelling discussion on varying musical treatments of the same text, the role of the composer in setting another’s words, and the marrying of the composer’s voice with that of the author’s. I ultimately placed “The End of a Season” as the final song in my complete set and it is the source for the set's title. The final stanza reads: But there is no one to come back to now, / only the night, its wind and rain, the chill / magnificence of its borrowed light, / the touch of this impossible season.

I am incredibly grateful for having been introduced to Dana’s poetry and for his continued support in allowing my music to live with his words.

Pentecost is a setting of Dana Gioia's poem of the same name. Gioia’s work has become a great source of personal inspiration. His texts are often engaging accounts of the human experience, expressing universal and complex emotions expertly captured in verse. Gioia’s “Pentecost,” written after the death of his young son, is a gripping reflection on tragedy and loss. Supremely painful and heartrending, this poem is filled with powerful imagery and pointed text. As in many of his works, the sound of Gioia’s word choice and phrasing lends itself to a musical pairing.

My Elegy for String Orchestra is a somber reflection on loss, sorrow, and hope. Although inspired by specific events, the sentiments conveyed in the work are universal, timeless, and invite the listener to embrace often difficult emotions. Through interspersed lines that yield frequently thick polyphony, the listener is offered a contemplative environment in which to reflect through a combination of both simplicity and complexity.

Battle Songs recounts the events/effects of four battles of pre-WWII wars—the battle of Concord (Revolutionary War), the battle of Buena Vista (Mexican-American War), the battle of Shiloh (Civil War), and the second battle of Ypres (World War I).

Concord was my first venture into writing art song. Written for myself to perform, it was not until after many performances that I decided to expand the work into a set of songs. Shiloh, the second song added, is not only a powerfully reflective text, but represents the Civil War battle in which my own great-great-grandfather fought and was wounded. Although organized as a complete and ordered set, each song functions as an independent vignette, unified by a common theme: the remembrance of pre-World War II conflicts. Therefore, each song may exist independently from the set.