Compositions, Performances
It’s been pointed out to me a few times that there are very few examples of my work accessible online, and that it might be a good idea to rectify this situation, so here below are a few examples of my work as a composer and performer.
I do, however, want to add two important caveats: firstly, the graphic scores posted here have many different possible realizations, and thus the audio examples are, in almost all cases, a very poor guide to what’s actually important about them. At best, they’re an example of how one group, in one performance situation, chose to realize them: as a sample they might be useful for specific cases, but should not in any way be taken as precedent-setting.
Secondly, please note that these are collaborative performances (especially the improv sessions) for which I cannot be credited as the sole artist, and as a courtesy to the other contributors I ask that you not share the audio or video embedded below.
Compositions
Three-Body Problem (WIP)
I’ve been working over the summer of 2025 on reviving and improving my skills with pen and ink, and also working with watercolor. These aren’t finished: I have a layer of metallic ink I’m going to add once the last sheets are dried and flattened, but you can see that this is a very different æsthetic than my previous scores, much more … extravagant. The performance instructions are a series of short, cryptic statements I mentioned in my post about performance notes. This piece is being composed for the NAM Ensemble in Oslo.
Zauberkisten (Magic Boxes), 2015—2020
Originally planned for an 18-hour event in 2015, I didn’t finish assembling the score until 2020. Five MDF boxes with slots and an LED light-panel in the back. Plexiglas sheets are fit into each slot, on which are printed a pseudo-3D “grid” with circles. Small chips with graphics are placed in the circles, creating a sort of maze for the performers to traverse. Their performance is influenced proportionate to the estimated linear distance from their current position to every chip within their maze. Premiered by the Neue Vokal Solisten at “Irrgarten,” an online concert curated by Yiran Zhao at Musik der Jahrhunderte in Stuttgart:
A World Made of Light, 2016
Approximately 60 laminated sheets, pen and ink. The fractions represent pitches in just intonation relative to a(n octave-equivalent) fundamental of 60Hz. Pitches are added in priority order by the size of the circles and may be freely combined. When performers feel they have sufficiently explored all possible harmonic combinations on a page, they may move to the next page, indicated with Greek letters. Performers sometimes have a choice between multiple pages and may choose freely. Premiered by Ensemble Hörwerk in December, 2016, at “Die Lotte,” a pop-up arts venue in Stuttgart. Audio only:
Rundgänge, 2010
This was an instruction score in which various collaborators were given tasks involving motions in circles, performed at the Münster St. Paul in Esslingen. I was rolling a large stone across the floor, there was a model train set moving along a circular track, two Figurenspiel performers circled around the pews on stilts, somebody was playing wine-glasses, etc. I don’t think I ever even wrote it down. Audio only:
Performance Pieces, 2012—present
I had a dream in 2012 in which my colleague Natasha Lopez Fernandez was in tears because she thought I didn’t believe she was a good performer, and she wanted me to know she was really good at Fluxus-style performance art. Of course, Natasha’s an excellent singer and performer and I think very highly of her, but it inspired me to write a series of short performance pieces for her. All of these are handwritten on note-cards and handed off to her whenever we meet.
Forest of Leaves, sometime before 2014
I’m not even really sure when I produced this score, though the label on the box suggests sometime before 2014. This was a set of forty sheets with various graphics similar to these. They were hung on clotheslines strung between three performers distributed in the “forest” section of the Stuttgart Museum of History. The performers had some sheets on a music stand in front of them, but could then choose to send sheets to one or the other performer via the clothesline.
Performances
I’ve been a contrabassoonist for about thirty years; in that time I’ve played with a number of groups dedicated to graphic scores, but also frequently as an improviser. Below are a few recordings I’ve made of improv sessions, most of which are very old at this point.
MusikMarathon, January 2011
Improviser Roland Graeter made a tour of central Europe in which he performed with a different group every day for an entire year. We were his third stop. This was a larger ensemble, and I can’t remember all the performers, but I do recognize HuiHui Cheng on GǔQín, and the sounds of a couple puppeteers from the Figurenspiel department in Stuttgart (along with Roland Graeter, voice). Audio only:
Duo with Cello, 2009—2012
For a short time in Stuttgart I organized an “improvisation hour” once a week, and Esther Saladin, cellist, was one of the regulars. Below, in no particular order, are a few of our sessions.
MoWeR, 2006
Trio together with Will Redman, percussion, and Leah Muir, cello. If the folder name is any indication, this was our first long-form session.