February 28, 2008 - The outstandinig contemporary music group IonSound Project will premiere my recent composition, Trouble, during their concert on Friday, March 21. The concert takes place at the University of Pittsburgh's Bellefield Hall Auditorium at 8 p.m. General admission is $10, student/senior admission is $5 (under 15 free). Pitt students will be admitted free with ID. You can find out more about the concert here.
Trouble is based on a Gradual for the Second Sunday of Lent (LU 546) The troubles of my heart are multiplied: deliver me from my necessities. Psalm 24:17, Douay. I adapted the medieval technique of cantus firmus, using the chant as a slow-moving bass line in the outer sections, and creating elaborate polyphony around the chant (presented prominently by the cello) during the middle section of the piece. I wrote most of Trouble during the summer of 2006 and am thrilled that the outstanding musicians of IonSound Project are giving the premiere.
September 10, 2007 - I've been working on a commercial project off and on since 2006 which has finally been released to the public. I'm pleased to announce that Qlique, the next generation social networking site, has launched. I've been heavily involved in creating musical themes and audio cues for Qlique since the alpha release phase and now the site has launched at college campuses around the country. Unfortunately for those of you who have left higher education behind forever, Qlique is only for students, but if you're still in school, check it out.
I have to say that undertaking a project that is so utterly and unapologetically about entertainment has been very, well, entertaining. For those of you who are into the gory details, I did the bulk of my work for Qlique using Reason and Digital Performer, an excellent combination to be sure.
January 25, 2007 – In Cold Storm Light was presented as part of “Free Play 6: Listening Chamber” at Grand Valley State University (Allendale Michigan) on January 25. A wide variety of electroacoustic music was performed at GVSU’s Art Gallery amid a display of recent works by Dennis Nahabetian and Tara Stephensen. The concert was organized by composer and GVSU faculty member Bill Ryan.
October 7, 2006 – My electroacoustic setting of Leslie Marmon Silko's poem In Cold Storm Light was premiered as part of Prog Rockers for MOTE, a benefit concert for Pitt's contemporary music series, Music on the Edge. The concert took place in Bellefield Hall Auditorium and featured music by Eric Moe, Roger Zahab and myself, as well as performances from three local experimental bands, Natura Nasa, The Binge Mechanisms, and Kalon. Roger Zahab (violin) performed two of his pieces with Rob Frankenberry at the piano, and the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo performed Steve Reich's Piano Phase with live remixing by David Hidek. Thanks to Adam Rauf of Kalon for his efforts organizing the event. In the photo above I'm hanging out with Kalon drummer Eric Belcastro before the show.
July 2006 - I spent July recording and editing a demo CD for the amazing musicians of IonSound Project. A Pierrot plus percussion ensemble, IonSound is the first Pittsburgh-based contemporary music group to take root since the famed Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble moved to a summer festival format. The actual recording sessions took place in Pitt's Bellefield Hall Auditorium taking advantage of that venue's excellent new digital recording system. I did all the mixing and editing in my home studio using Digital Performer with lots of helpful input from IonSound members Peggy Yoo (flute), Rob Frankenberry (piano), and Eliseo Rael (percussion). The CD includes music by Patrick Burke, Joan Tower, Eric Moe, and Roger Zahab among others.
December 17, 2005 – I led FAYM (the Fine Arts Youth Ministry of Sewickley United Methodist Church) in a performance of his arrangement of selections from Akin Euba's gospel opera Bethlehem with the composer present.
Read the article about FAYM in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Press Release
FAYM will Present a Program of African Christmas Music, Premiere Composition by Local High Schooler
Christmas is a season in which many musical events will feature time-honored classics. But this year the Fine Arts Youth Ministry (FAYM) of Sewickley United Methodist Church explores a new Christmas tradition by presenting music by Nigerian composer and ethnomusicologist Akin Euba. FAYM’s Orchestra will perform excerpts from Euba’s Bethlehem: a Gospel Opera on Saturday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m. The concert takes place in the sanctuary or Sewickley United Methodist and is free to the public. The orchestra will be joined by the Sewickley United Methodist Chancel Choir, and guest artists soprano Dana Lundquist, bass-baritone Richard Teaster, and drummer Anicet Mundundu. FAYM will also premiere a new composition by Sewickley Academy sophomore and FAYM participant Chris Nickell entitled A Cultural Sketch of Medieval Spain.
Euba’s Bethlehem emerges from the folk opera tradition of Yorubaland in Southwestern Nigeria, a genre closely related to African church music. Bethlehem was premiered at the National Theatre in Lagos in 1984.
Chris Nickell’s Cultural Sketch of Medieval Spain is his second composition for the FAYM orchestra and explores scales and modes of both Muslim and Christian musical traditions—traditions which would have coexisted in Spain during the Middle Ages. While not specifically Christmas music, the work fits nicely with the theme of cultural exploration which underlies the evening.
FAYM is an ecumenical Christian ministry helping young people to discover, through participation, the relationship between faith and art. The focus of the orchestra is on music-making in a positive environment, with the older musicians helping the younger.
March 15, 2005 - Roger Zahab (violin) and Robert Frankenberry (piano) performed my composition Emergence during the Biannual U3 Festival: New Music from CMU, Duquense, and Pitt. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Andrew Druckenbrod wrote:
"Emergence" by Philip Thompson was a thoughtful duo... that paddled through waters too deep for me to completely comprehend on first hearing. The first of two movements found a legato violin line soaring slowly above a piano part both impressionistic and pondering. The second was less a butterfly emerging from a cocoon than an action born out of contemplation.