New blog. First post. Do I need some kind of mission statement? Do I even know what this space is for?

I know that I want to write more. I think I have a system in my life to put me in a position to write more. I have things I want to explore.

Mostly this will concern music and open projects.

To begin: I’m closer to a succinct answer to the question, “What kind of music do you compose?”

Music that explores the places where classical music and everything else overlap.

The idea for this answer came to me recently when I was preparing to talk about my Love Songs album at University of Wisconsin Green Bay. In the description for that music I had written that I was “exploring the small slice of common ground where art song and pop song overlap.” It occurred to me that this was more or less what I’ve done with most pieces I’ve written. I’m looking at the overlaps.

This is my way, I think, of trying to reconcile the music I’ve studied and been trained to appreciate with the music I listen to outside of that (jazz, rock, pop, electronica, etc). I know I’m not the only one who does this. There are many others who compose the same way.

For me, the interest in looking for commonalities across style and types is part of my search to understand what makes music good—the very nature of music itself. (That’s been in my short bio for years.)

That’s not what this blog is going to be about, but that idea is a foundational concept. We’ll see where that leads.

I can always come back and cook up a mission statement later.