To Heal the Land was written as my doctoral dissertation.  It is an oratorio-like piece about the relationship between the Christian faith and the environment of planet Earth.  I wrote the text myself, and it includes several Biblical quotations and paraphrases.  The two soloists ("Man" and "Woman" - both are medium-range voices) take opposite positions on the questions of how Christians ought to care for God's creation, with the chorus moderating the debate.  The piece is in three movements, with a total duration of around 40 minutes.  The orchestra consists of 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, saxophone, horn, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 4 percussionists, piano and strings.  The string sections should be of chamber-orchestra size.

Quarter Century was written as my master's thesis.  It is a summation of my musical development up to that time, which was slightly over a quarter century.  The piece is filled with quotations of and allusions to the music I heard and was influenced by at the various times of my life.  The first movement, "Early Music", represents my childhood.  The brief "Scherzo" covers high school, and the "Finale" represents college and life after college, including marriage and grad school.  I won't give away the quotations here: enjoy finding them!

I wrote this while playing with the Pacific Rim Gamelan at the University of Oregon, and we performed it on a concert given as a memorial to Lou Harrison.  The middle section of the piece includes a typical Balinese interlocking pattern, but the rest of the piece is more sparse than the traditional music of this ensemble.

This was one of the last pieces I wrote as an undergrad, and I conducted it on my senior recital.  The band at Trinity International University premiered the revised version in 2001.