music
I began my musical career as a classical violinist in Philadelphia, evolved into an electric violinist on a Marshall stack leading a power trio in the Pacific Northwest and Tokyo Japan. Today, I perform an avant-garde blend of genres using digital looping technology.
Rock ‘n Roll Pipeline
When I first started playing electric, I wanted to learn how to play blues and rock and roll. It was a craft, just like playing classical music but the vocabulary was completely new. This is a mash up of Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll with the Ventures’ Pipeline. It was a technical circus, stretching my newfound language on my instrument.
Mama Q and the Mudsharks helped me recreate this tune at Site:Lab’s Transformation Station for ArtPrize 2022.
“Titus”
Butoh interpretation of Shakespearean tragedy
Rachel Finan is Lavinia, the raped and mutilated daughter of General Titus with her hands cut off, her tongue cut out, and ravished. We portray the story of betrayal, madness and violence.
“Of Thee I Sing”
a duet with Intersections by Anila Quayyum Agha
This piece was written as a soundscape in response to the widening political divide between the far right and far left post 2016 elections. Hateful dialogues on Twitterverse misappropriating the Founders of the United States in the name of “patriotism” reminded me of TS Eliot’s Hollow Men, who couldn’t recite the words to the Lord’s Prayer. The patriotic songs quoted are fragmented and confused, then blended with Prince’s Purple Rain - a gospel like hymn that blends the red and blue hues into one.
Nosferatu vs Ritsu
I was commissioned by Erin Wilson, then director of the Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids, to create and perform an original live score not as accompaniment but as equals on stage with the 1929 Silent Film classic by F. W. Murnau.
This one night only show, was performed and recorded at Wealthy Theatre, Grand Rapids, MI on Halloween 2009.
In the Beginning
In the Beginning is the Creation story told backwards. Humans have created an orderly world where rhythm and harmony are in sync, and has made earth so human-centric that it is beginning to devolve. Starting with Pachelbel’s Canon, the musical journey undoes the 7 days of creation ending in chaos and nothingness.
performed at Mexicains Sans Frontieres
The composition has 7 sections, for 7 days:
Reflection
Man and Beast
Birds in air and Fish in water
Sun Moon Stars
Earth and Fauha
Sky from Water
Light from Darkness
