The biography text below was written about 12 years ago now. That was in The Before Time. In the intervening years, I’ve had a couple of kids and moved to a couple of different states. I’m home now. Full circle.
I still think about that stuff from time to time and that’s why I’m not deleting it. But let’s say that things have changed. Life has moved me to different places. And I look at art through a very different lens.
I’m not sure how much I’ll talk about that anymore. We need to figure out, as a culture, where we are today and what we’re going to be about. What does it mean to make art in 2020?
Things have changed.
“Artistic creativity can be motivated by different aims. The most commonplace of these is the desire to attract the attention of others, to be popular, to earn money, and so on. In my case, the main motive is the desire to give the most faithful expression of a constantly changing and developing world that exists within me.
The question can be raised: Am I only interested in what goes on in me and nothing else? Isn’t this standpoint too introverted? My answer is: No. I have a strong desire to communicate something, through my music, to the people. I am not working to get many ‘fans’ for myself; I do not want to convince, I want to find. I would like to find people who in the depths of their souls feel the same way I do. That can only be achieved through the greatest artistic sincerity in every detail of music, from the minutest technical aspects to the most secret depths. I know that this standpoint deprives me of many potential listeners, but those who remain mean an immeasurable treasure to me. They are the people who are closest to me, even if I do not know them personally. I regard creative activity as a kind of soul-fishing and the ‘catch’ is the best medicine for loneliness, that most human of sufferings.”
Witold Lutoslawski (1913 – 1994)
Those words from Lutoslawski were presented to me during my time at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music on a photocopy that included a publicity headshot of the composer. I was nineteen or twenty maybe and so sure that I knew exactly what he meant. I tucked the page into a notebook and would pull it out from time to time for inspiration. It was a time release thought bomb. As I cruise through this phase of my life, it occurs to me that I’m finally getting down to the business of that fishing. I’m truly searching for my audience and that point of connection.
I was trained as a composer and classical guitarist. My work has included compositions for traditional western ensembles, garage bands, folk groups, and computers. If it can make a noise, I’m interested in it. If it’s a sound that can be twisted and reimagined, I’ll take it. Most of my work is about texture and transition.
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