Throughout most of my creative career, I’ve inflicted a self-imposed separation between my work as a composer, my work as a marching band and percussion arranger, and my passion for complex electronica and djent music. This separation came from a mentality that my “serious” work needed to conform to an aspirational “classical masterpiece” standard that always pushed my own boundaries and had a high compositional craft meticulousness that was at odds with marching and electronic music that I wrote more quickly and mostly for fun.
I’ve recently come to realize that this mental segregation has actively hindered an important part of my musical identity in my work, one that I’ve developed and loved for decades. I’ve since been determined to break down those barriers and trust that all of my musical influences and skills can work harmoniously to strengthen my creative output.
Polarities was written in this spirit, a quick and light-hearted etude that is a love letter to two of my strongest and oldest musical in????uences – minimalist composer Steve Reich and UK-based electronica duo Plaid. It also represents my continuing journey to embrace and be true to my entire creative self.
Polarities was premiered at New Music on the Bayou 2024 by Oliver Molina and Greg Lyons on June 8th, 2024.
