The Final Battle for Love, 2008 (duration 35 minutes)
One-act opera

Note: The two video excerpts below were from a performance at the Virginia Arts Festival in 2010 as part of the John Duffy Composers Institute. I have been invited back to the 2012  Duffy Institute where more scenes from Final Battle will be performed, this time with chamber orchestra accompaniment. 

Excerpt 1: Starla


The Narrator and his girlfriend Starla “wrestle” about love. Starla does not believe in love, only that they have “good chemistry.” The two argue intensely about the nature of their relationship.

Excerpt 2: Darling Donnis


Lord Poetry and Bob Noxious try to strangle each other in The Final Battle for Love. Darling Donnis rushes into the ring in a panic, begging Big Bill Boscoe the Ringside Announcer and Rockin’ Robbie Frazier to intervene, but there is nothing they can do. Starla roots for Bob Noxious while the Narrator remains loyal to Lord Poetry.

Kecow hit tamen, 2011 (duration 8 minutes)
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and live electronics

I wrote this piece for my father, who is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. An enduring legend about Lumbee origins is that the tribe is descended from the intermarriage between members of Raliegh’s Lost Colony and the Croatan or Hatteras. The Croatan phrase “Kecow hit tamen?” means either “What is this?” or “What is your name?” 

Dust: A Lenten Journey, 2011 (duration 30 minutes)
Mezzo-soprano, string quartet, and live electronics

“Scratch” is the fifth song in this cycle of poems by Rebecca Engstrom. The setting includes an electroacoustic layer of component fricatives from “scratch” and “dust.”