Alien Worlds
… is a ten-minute featurette developed at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It premiered in early April 2011 and has been a part of the planetarium’s Hohfeld Hall shows, off and on, since then.
The featurette’s soundscape is a complex generative piece, entitled Alchemy. It requires two computers running Kenaxis Surround and was originally composed as a longform surround-sound piece. It will run continuously, without repeating, for many many hours; it uses manipulations of Belgian hunting horns originally recorded by freesound artist Jovica Storer. A short (21 min) sample of the piece is provided above.
Mary Stuart
Mark Jackson directed the Shotgun Players’ production of this classic. It opened in October 2010 for an extended run. Here are some sound samples from the play.
Miss Julie
Miss Julie, directed by Mark Jackson, was a part of Aurora Theater’s 2009 season. Below are four samples of the music that became an integral part of the play. Members of San Francisco’s Real Vocal String Quartet recorded the violin (Alisa Rose), viola (Dina Maccabee) and cello (Jessica Ivry) music. I am deeply indebted to Alisa Rose for her generous advice on writing idiomatically for fiddle!
A Period Piece
A Period Piece is a play written by Rachel Kerr. The fourth and final act uses Byzantine as a backdrop for all of its dialog and action. The play has had several runs in San Francisco and New York City.