Composition

“Creative arrangements, moving chord changes, and inventive and original harmonic nuances. What a joy! your writing exceeds anything I’ve heard recently in… pop literature, and your arrangements of classics are incomparable.”

—Dr. Spencer Klevenow, Ed.D.

The hardest part of songwriting for me is getting past the feeling that I’ve already heard this song before. (Not that I’m alone in this fear—Robert Schumann is quoted as saying that “to compose music, all you have to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.”)

But art is always born of experience, so it makes sense that my writing reflects facets of other artists whose work I respect.  A little Frédéric Chopin, a little Stephen Sondheim, a little Richard Smallwood, a little Jason Mraz… somehow it all seems to come together, though.

When writing lyrics, I love to start by looking at everyday subject matter—a cup of coffee between old friends, the tense silence between lovers after an argument—but then I want to look past the surface details to shine a light on the universal, transcendent truths that we so often find when we give life a chance to teach us.  I even wrote a lyric about how inadequate lyrics are at capturing human experience.  (Is that what the kids are calling “meta”?)

My original compositions and arrangements have been featured at global denominational gatherings of both the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, in venues ranging from Portland, Oregon to Cape Town, South Africa; and performed by choirs and solo artists all across the country.  My music is better-traveled than I am.

For more…

  • For a catalog of the compositions and arrangements I currently have available for purchase, visit the Shop tab.
  • Or, visit the Lyrics page for a sneak peek at songs I’ve written that aren’t yet ready for print publication.
  • If you’d like me to write or arrange a piece for a particular event or occasion, drop me a line.  I do sometimes work on commission when my schedule allows.