Share a song you feel was ahead of its time.

Time for more Carlo Gesualdo! This is just one of many examples (especially check out the heart-wrenching suspension toward the end)—but all of his later madrigals especially are SO ahead of their time!

He was creating harmonies in the 1500s that wouldn’t be taken seriously until the late 1800s! Of course… getting away with the murder of your wife and her illicit lover would cause anyone to face their darkest demons, as reflected in this music…. 😈

How do you discover new music, and what’s the latest gem you’ve found?

In this particular case, I’ve always been fascinated by Carlo Gesualdo’s music and his troubled life—he’s one of those 16th century nobles who murdered people and then fought his demons the rest of his life, and his music absolutely reflects that!

I stumbled on this particular madrigal of his while doing deeper research into his compositional methods for a project I’m about to start. And I’ve just fallen in love with it!

This song came on the other day and I suddenly remembered how much I love it! Not only is it absolutely a most groovy beat—something I routinely at least have to move to, if not full-out dance—but I can really relate to the lyrics. I feel like I have no roots either, just a few very important memories. My whole life has been a constant cross-country drive, searching for the next stop, the next road that looks like it’ll go somewhere… And this song gives me hope—that some of us are just spiritual travelers on this journey of Life. “It's just the place that changes, the rest is still the same…”

Think back to your childhood: What is your earliest music memory? Share that song and your story!

Honestly, my earliest music memory is MAKING music in my crib, singing my own melodies at just (maybe) two years old. Hence why I’m a driven composer and creator :)

But if I had to guess, I think the earliest music-LISTENING memory I have is of listening to the Kids Praise cassettes with Psalty the Psalm Book (I grew up in a Christian cult and all we were able to listen to early on was Christian music).

This particular song, “Arky Arky”, I still remember as being one of my favorites. Truly, the rhythms and rhymes of it are still fun to sing along with! :)

This came on while I was driving home today, and it just makes me smile! I mean, these lyrics man:

“ I know Victoria's secret And, girl, you wouldn't believe She's an old man who lives in Ohio Making money off of girls like me" Cashin' in on body issues Sellin' skin and bones with big boobs I know Victoria's secret: She was made up by a dude…”

I’m playing in concert with the Whittier Regional Symphony this weekend, and this Prokofiev Symphony No. 1 is the piece we’re finishing the concert with. It is CRAZY hard, but it sounds so charming and light and effervescent….! We worked on it this afternoon at our dress rehearsal and it’s just starting to come together 😂 And I’m loving it more and more each time we play it… Utterly charming and delightful!

Today I very much have an old trio on my mind, something I wrote in 2016 for two violins and piano, a specific commission from a fellow violinist I played with in the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony.

Today I took the old sheet music and rearranged it for clarinet, cello, and piano—and I have to admit that in many ways I like this new version of the work BETTER! @_@

Anyway, I’ve got the original recorded version for 2 violins cued up here (this recording I did with two of my best friends, so it’s also very special), but if you’d like to hear the MIDI demo of the new version for clarinet and cello, you can enjoy that on SoundCloud (https://on.soundcloud.com/D9K9A67AJpkUIRzqbH).

Share a song that captures the feeling of being proud.

This has always been my go-to, self-empowerment song. The late ‘90s were especially rough for adolescent me, undiagnosed autistic and in an abusive childhood home… So whenever this came on (and still to this day) I raise my voice and sing along!