Narrative BIO
During my undergraduate composition studies at Tel Aviv University’s Rubin Academy of Music (1982-1986), I purchased a Korg PolySix synthesizer and joined a very loud and good New Wave band called Lipstick. These broader interests led me to convince the director of the academy to earmark a large donation for purchasing NED’s (New England Digital) Synclavier, an advanced computer music system. Yes, I won a 1984 composition prize for my mini-opera Lot’s Daughters and their Father; was sent along with my taped score to a wonderful Italian seaside festival with a Jerusalem Festival winning puppet production (A Prince in Three Parts1986); was selected for participation in Bourges’ Concours Internationale de Musique Electroacoustique (1986) and one of my first film scores was awarded a Chicago International Film Festival certificate of merit (Crows, 1987) and International Jerusalem Film Festival award (Crows, 1988), but that academy’s electronic studio single-handedly prepared and pushed me – through mastering analog tape techniques to long nights of conquering additive synthesis, spectral analysis and digital sampling techniques – to triumph in 1987 New York.
Landing in electroacoustic pioneer and new-age diva Suzanne Ciani’s company, as Creative Electronic Associate, (1987-1990) I became an accomplished audio engineer and mixer, a successful programmer and sound designer for commercials (Motorola, Japan Airlines, IBM, and others), a Grammy-nominated arranger on Suzanne’s Neverland album (Best New Age Performance, 1988), and an award-winning composer for documentary films Caracol: The Lost Maya City (Bronze Medal, International TV & Film Festival of New York, 1987) and Handprints: The Lacandon Indians (1988).
MTV/Movie Channel director Richard Schenkman invited me to score his first short feature (Overnight Success, 1989) and New York City connected me with choreographers, with the best and the worst method acting had to offer (at The Actors Studio, where alongside working with Yana Brandt, Susan Batson, Tatum O’Neal and Elizabeth Kemp, I also had the pleasure of sitting in on the occasional Arthur Penn review) and slick Mamet moves (at The Atlantic Theatre, with his pal William H. Macy directing Tom Donaghy’s Down The Shore, 1993). 1990 saw the premiere of my Jacob’s Dream score for Martha Graham and Bat-Sheba Dance Company alumni Rina Schenfeld, and the now-classic Once Upon a Potty videos I co-produced won a Parents’ Choice Best Children’s Video award (1991).
As I moved to Back Pocket Recording and Pandaemonium Post’s Eureeka’s Castle team for the Nickelodeon series (Bronze Medal, International TV & Film Festival of New York, 1989; Best Children’s Programming, Parents’ Choice, 1990; ACE Award, National Academy of Cable Programmers, 1990), I also became involved with experimental indoor and site-specific theater with Vietnamese-American Tai Dang (The Waste Land, pt. 1, 1991), with John Kelly & Company (Constant Stranger, 1995), Marijeanne Liederbach’s Fourworks (Head Games, 1992; LAKE and other monochromatic dances, 1993; Shades of Rhythm, 1994; GOLD: a light exploration of a heavy subject, 1995), and with Muna Tseng’s Dance Projects (Shattered: hymns for mortal creatures, 1991; Spirit Ruins, 1992) with works later traveling to England, China and Japan.
My Nothing Works jazz score was recognized for Musical Excellence by The 1991 “First Run” Student Film Festival at Tisch School of the Arts and documentary film work grew to include Robert Redford and Michael Apted's Incident At Oglala (Miramax, 1992) and HDTV programs for Barry Rebo and NHK including Passage To Vietnam, Inside The White House: With The President’s Photographers, Doctors Without Frontiers and a National Geographic 3-part pilot called Talking Pictures.
The New York Times described one of my compositions for dance as a “haunting collage of sounds, original and popular music”; The Glasgow Herald felt “true passion” in another work and The London Times marveled at “light seeming materials build[ing] an overwhelming effect”; The Village Voice explained my “emotionally charged original music” as “wonderfully poignant and plangent”. The Tibetan Book of the Dead was explored in my score for Tai Dang’s RE: to be continued (1992) and folk music with Anne Sexton had cameo appearances in my work for his site-specific Have Red Ever Green (1996), produced by Elise Bernhardt and Dancing In The Streets.
In the mid-90’s I distanced myself from dance, searching for time to write lyrics and music for more classically-oriented song cycles. I scored audiobooks for Simon & Schuster (R.L. Stine’s Ghosts of Fear Street series, Ben & Jerry’s Double Dip, Leah Rabin’s Our Life, His Legacy all 1997-1998) and HarperCollins Audio (Once Upon a Potty, 1999). My eclectic and all-original the ocean of love album-for-the-whole-family was recognized as an Extraordinary Audio Accomplishment by Parents’ Choice and selected that same year by Parent Council as Outstanding from Learning Perspective (1996).
In 2000, the Dutka Art Foundation recognized my self-produced DanceWorks (Bi-Cameral Records, 1991) with a Composition Award. My Primo Levi inspired opera to scratch an angel took form in the late-90’s, winning a 2001 New York City Opera Showcasing American Composers opportunity (wonderful 30-minute excerpt led by maestro George Manahan). The work enjoyed a small Margaret Jory Copying Assistance Grant from The American Music Center (2001) and was later presented twice with piano and singers by American Opera Projects and conductor Steven Osgood (2003). Soon thereafter I recorded wiping ceramic tiles, a work in progress for countertenor & piano, with the marvelous James Bowman in London.
Following a move from New York to Boston in 2001 at the invitation of a post-production facility interested in expanding into composition and sound design, I also returned to academia, completing my Master’s degree while studying with the great Lukas Foss at Boston University. That experience was coupled with teaching electronic music alongside Richard Cornell, and advanced analysis with Martin Amlin, Samuel Headrick and Charles Fussell. to scratch an angel began its transformation from a grand opera to an even more powerful chamber format, and a song cycle for mezzo and piano emerged (Animals, 2003-2004). I paused the BU studies in 2003-2004 to develop a preschool television project, and retuned to complete the degree with Joshua Rifkin and Brita Heimarck, with an emphasis on musicology and ethnomusicology.
Based on my past award-winning activities in quality family entertainment, most significantly with my mother Once Upon a Potty classic brand, Oceanhouse Media approached me in 2010 to co-produce a pair of mobile applications based on the books, featuring an original song of mine, in both full and instrumental sing-along versions, original sound effects, etc. After their great success with Dr. Seuss and other titles, Oceanhouse and I were able together to create a lasting, instant-classic preschool app on all platforms, including iTunes’ App Store, Android App on Google PLAY, Amazon app, and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK platform (CTR – Children’s Technology Review – Editor’s Choice Selection, 2011).
Between 2008-2012 I created, arranged and produced a collection of original lullabies in jazz styles for a project called Sketches of Sleep. Contributors and co-writers included New York Voices members Peter Eldridge and Kim Nazarian, jazz phenomenon Jane Monheit, songstress Madeleine Peyroux and Broadway’s Luba Mason. The complete project is yet unreleased but some samples can be heard here: http://tinyurl.com/o9yf6zf
In recent years, a connection with new friend and fan, countertenor Andreas Scholl, has led me to revise wiping ceramic tiles for a string quartet & voice version and begin work on a Dowland ReComposed composition that Andreas had suggested, bringing a few John Dowland consort songs into our 21st century, with timeless voices and musicians. I have returned to playing piano live on stage, accompanying Peter Terry in several concerts titled Countertenor Cabaret, evenings that included works of mine alongside songs by Scott Wheeler, JJ Hollingsworth, and Lukas Foss. I have consulted with John Kelly friend Robbert LaFosse about movement and am connecting again to choreographers Tero Saarinen and Zvi Gotheiner to explore collaborations on some of these projects.
The Djerassi Resident Artists Program has invited me, as one of only six chosen artists-who-are-interested-in-science, to participate in July 2014, along with six scientists-interested-in-the-arts, in a new Scientific Delirium Madness residency. My work this year on an Actors Studio Waiting for Godot production has also led to composing The Beckett Variations, now growing from piano-only, to voice and strings, alongside pre-recorded electroacoustic parts. I am in touch with the rights holders of the silent Beckett/Buster Keaton FILM, to possibly include it in this work. Samples from it can be heard here: http://tinyurl.com/py3kcha
Another new work-in-progress was recently inspired by my friend Fiona Shaw’s production and starring role on Broadway’s The Testament of Mary; I call it chair: and it explores wood’s structure and texture from Mary’s chair, to Glenn Gould’s and beyond. Samples can be heard here: http://tinyurl.com/paczxtq
My live music has previously been heard in Chicago, Houston, Princeton, Los Angeles, San Francisco, England, France, Italy, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Holland, Japan and Poland. New York performances have included The Kitchen, Dia Center For The Arts, Washington Square Church and SummerStage at Central Park.