Composer, Lyricist, Book Writer

I am a singer. But I'm also a composer.

It started when I was ten years old, or so. My sister was in the most advanced group of a western Washington orchestra organization and was on retreat with said orchestra. My mother was a chaperone, so that left my father and I at home. After forcing my dad to watch Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace about six times through in one day ("because I want to memorize it"), he decided that he and I should drive out to the orchestra retreat and visit my mom and sister, and listen to the orchestra rehearse. Being the rather... enthusiastic kid I was, as soon as we got there I was bored. The conductor of the orchestra took me aside and handed me his laptop with an early version of Finale on it. After writing two bars-worth of a subject, he turned the computer to me and said, "finish the piece." I labored over it for a couple hours and finally finished a single-page, fugue-like, two-part invention for piano.

While I haven't seen the piece in over fifteen years (it's floating around somewhere on the piano in my parents' basement), it served as a milestone in my life. After that I would run around finding manuscript, writing random music notes, rests, clefs, time signatures, and key signatures, throw them onto my older sister's music stand while she was practicing her violin, then request that she play it, "now." She always made up something that sounded good, though it definitely was not the chicken-scratch I had written.

The next time I remember actually trying to compose was after visiting the Juilliard School during a trip to New York in 2003. I remember this vividly as we were caught in the Great Northeast Blackout at JFK airport. We had just found out that all flights out and in had been canceled and we were stranded for at least a day or two. My dad went to wrangle a free hotel room, my mom tried her best to be calm, and my sister did her best Monica impression. I sat down on my suitcase, pulled out the gigantic binder of orchestral manuscript paper I had just purchased at the Juilliard gift shop, and began to write "Gandalf's Song." The Lord of the Rings was very popular, and I was sure that I was going to ride that wave of popularity by being the first twelve-year-old to have a major work performed by the Seattle Symphony. Suffice it to say, "Gandalf's Song" still sits in a pile on that same basement piano with only about two pages written. Maybe I'll return to it some day, but probably not.

In college I turned to writing art songs as my voice major kicked in. I wrote many art songs my freshman year along with a requiem, which still sits unfinished.

All this to say, I have dabble quite a bit with composing over the years. But never as much as I am right now. I have begun work on a full-scale, five-act dramatic opera. I'm using the ancient story of Beowulf and adding in a few of my own elements. While it is still unfinished, it is scheduled for workshopping by mid-February, with the hopes of having it performed (at least in a concert version) by the end of May. This is my first, true attempt to write a piece that could be published and performed throughout the world. It's in English, with some bits of the original Old-English text thrown in, so as to reach modern American audiences, but also so I can act as my own librettist. I always held in high regard composers such as Wagner, Berlioz, and Berg, as well as musical theater composers like Sondheim who created their own text and music so as to create a cohesive whole. This is my aim: To create a work that shows the depth of the original poem, is relevant to today's society, and has music and text that work together to portray truly human characters.

If it never gets published or performed outside of my own attempts, so be it. But at least I know that I have accomplished something great and something that I have wanted to do for a long time. If it catches on, be ready for more. I have a list of ideas already growing.