“The tones and drones that arise from [the guitar’s] interaction with the algorithm have the feel of an alap in Indian classical music, slow and atmospheric massaging of sounds in preparation for a fiery electric raga." —The Wire
COURSES TAUGHT
- Lou Harrison: Music, Life, Activism
- Just Intonation Intensive
- Hollywood Musicals
- Broadway Musicals
- Topics in 20th- and 21st-Century Music
- Electronic Improvisation Workshop
- Musical Ekphrasis
- Music in San Francisco
EDUCATION
- PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz
- MM, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
- BM, Belmont University, Tennessee
ENSEMBLES
- Wild Rumpus
- duo with Larry Polansky
- sfSound
AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS
- New Music USA Project Grant, 2014
- Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, 2014
- Arts Division Graduate Research Symposium Dean’s Award, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2012
- Encore Award for Outstanding Classical Alum, Belmont University, 2018
What is your hometown?
Genova, Italy
What is your favorite recording?
The Beatles: Revolver
What are you passionate about outside of music?
Food, family, and sports.
Who were your major teachers?
David Tanenbaum, Larry Polansky, and Amy Beal.
What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?
"Tuning is just another form of government."
—John Cage
What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?
“Is there a book about this I can read?”
If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?
Probably a very unhappy doctor.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
Lou Harrison, Larry Polansky, and Toru Takemitsu.
From a music history perspective, what year and city are most important to you?
San Francisco, 1960s.
Who are three students you have had the privilege of teaching?
Kenji Oh, Andrew Vickers, and Sidney Ragland.
What are your academic publications?
Reminiscence, Reflections, Resonance: The Just Intonation Resophonic Guitar and Lou Harrison’s Scenes from Nek Chand, Journal for the Society of American Music, 2012
Heterophonic Tunings in the Music of Larry Polansky, TEMPO, 2014
Tuning Theory and Practice in James Tenney’s Works for Guitar, Music Theory Spectrum, 2018
What recordings can we hear you on?
Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura,Pinna Records
iv: american electric guitars, GFLP001
Il Velo di Iside in Possible Worlds 3, SpecT 32
Colors, GFCD2011
Lines and Waves, Spectropol Records
my heart comes undone/because, Paper Garden Records
freeHorn, Cold Blue Records
