michael

Congrats to everyone involved with the Neofonía new music festival at UABC in Ensenada, MX! It was fantastic to be there again for a residency with the Cauces Sónicos ensemble, as we prepared the music we’ll be performing on Oct. 24 at UC Irvine. Cauces is a multi-layered, two-year project that UCSD Prof. Wilfrido Terrazas and I co-direct, in collaboration … Read more

Bassist Mark Dresser and I have been working on duo music for several years, and in April, we recorded those compositions for an upcoming album. Later that month, we performed the music on a telematic concert between UCSD and UCI, with audiences at each location. After spending so long collaborating with Mark on this music, it was really rewarding to … Read more

I had a blast playing with trombone masters Joe Fiedler and Joey Sellers on the Open Gate series in LA! We did a set of solos followed by a trio set, and it was so inspiring to hear their unique sounds and approaches to the horn. I also composed a new scorestream for them, my term for software-based pieces where … Read more

I was happy to spend some time again in Ensenada, MX, performing with friends and students on the 10th Semana Internacional de la Improvisación (SIDIMPRO). The first concert was a double bill featuring new works by a group of ICIT PhD students from UCI (Emma Houton, Rebecca Larkin, Xuanqi Liu, Brandon Woo Snyder and Reed Wixson), followed by an improvisation … Read more

This summer and fall, we started the Cauces Sónicos (Sonic Channels) project, co-directed by Wilfrido Terrazas and me in collaboration with many other creative artists and students. Cauces is a two-year project with various layers of activities extending across the borderlands region, including professional collaborations to create new music, connecting students and faculty across several universities, and giving workshops for … Read more

While in Ensenada, MX for the Neofonía festival at UABC, I also enjoyed visiting the Instituto Contemporáneo de Música de Baja California, a wonderfully creative community music school. It was inspiring to see what Ivan Trujillo, Martha Rolón and their colleague teachers have built there, and I had fun working with these high school students who are starting to explore … Read more

I’m happy to announce the start of a new 2-year project I’m co-directing with Wilfrido Terrazas, a creative flutist-improviser and professor at UCSD. Titled Cauces Sónicos: Creative Music Making Across the Borderlands, our project has several layers that integrate artistic, educational and community engagement work, and “will leverage collaborative musical experimentation to explore a kaleidoscopic, expansive notion of the US-México borderlands, … Read more

Thanks to Samo for the invitation to do this hour-and-a-half interview, talking about many topics!