I can play piano (and keyboard), guitar, violin, recorder, tin whistle and percussion (including drum kit) at varying levels of competence.
I have been very impressed with the performances of Jambezi, a Berlin band with a repertoire that stretches from reggae and rock to jazz.
I have sung with MUCS, PUCS, MonUCS, and was most recently with ROCS as accompanist and tenor. Two of the members of ROCS invited me to sing with Mosaic for a few months just before I left Australia in 2003. For those interested in things choral, I wrote an article for the magazines SCUM and Dischord about stereotypes in choirs.
I once heard a very interesting lecture about the mathematics of the agraffe clamp. For those of you who are not aware of its use in the Stuart piano, you may wish to go to the official site. Having heard a recording, I can attest to the fact that the sound has much more of a sustained singing quality to it, with the second and third harmonics sounding a lot more clearly. There are sound samples available at this site.
I have written a number of pieces, and have recorded some of them onto
CD. If you would like a copy of my CD,
let me know.
You can hear three of the tracks in RealAudio format
here.
Below is a list of almost all of my compositions. If you want to download multitrack MIDI files, click on the title. Sheet music (in zipped bitmap format) is available via the link in the appropriate column.
| Title | Instrumentation | On my CD? | Sheet music | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Lord is my shepherd | Mezzo-soprano, piano | Yes | Yes | Psalm 23 |
| He who has ears | Mezzo-soprano, piano | Yes | Yes | Easter song |
| Two as one | Mezzo-soprano, baritone, piano | No | Yes | Written for two people about to be married. |
| The eternal song | Baritone, piano | No | No | |
| Tired | Spoken voice, piano | No | Yes | Only superficially atonal. |
| Hanging | Baritone, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| Be still | Bass, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| Away | Baritone, piano | No | Yes | |
| Deep in my heart | Flute or clarinet, piano | Yes | Yes | Originally written for two voices and piano, this was rewritten for solo instrument and piano. |
| Motion | Violin, viola, 'cello, piano | No | Yes | About half way through, each of the four instruments has a four-bar improvised cadenza (while the other instruments play a simple backing accompaniment) which has not been included, for obvious reasons. |
| Her chocolate cake | Bass, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| Her dream | Bass, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| Reason to live | Baritone, piano | No | No | |
| Goodbye | Bass, piano | Yes | Yes | Any bass singing this must have a very good low range. |
| My friend | Bass, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| Lullaby | Mezzo-soprano, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| Perpetual motion | Mezzo-soprano, contralto, bass | No | Yes | The atonal melody continually resurfaces in each voice part. |
| Song for Kat | Bass, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| The tree | Double bass | No | No | Very slow and unchanging, this piece was inspired by one of Ricky's pictures. |
| A touch | Mezzo-soprano, piano | No | Yes | |
| San Diego suite: | Flute | Movements 1 and 2 were inspired by Kuumba Mbuka, playing on some steps in La Jolla, San Diego, California. | ||
| No | No | |||
| Yes | No | |||
| No | No | |||
| No | No | |||
| No | No | |||
| No | No | |||
| My inspiration | Bass, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| The way things were | Mezzo-soprano, jazz instruments, piano | No | Yes | Jazz piece, with lyrics by Sarah Chan. |
| Where are all the good men? | Tenor, piano
(to be rewritten for tenor voice, lead guitar, backing guitar, keyboard and drums) |
Yes | Yes | |
| The dragon | Baritone, piano | Yes | Yes | |
| Lost | Contralto, piano | Yes | No | This piece was improvised around a melody and a lyric line by Hespa. |
| Life | Baritone, piano | Yes | No | Lyrics by Dyaminda. |
| The way it was | Baritone, piano | Yes | No | |
| Alone | Mixed voices | No | No | A three-part round. |
| The Emperor's palace | Piano | No | Yes | This piece was written for a Grade 3 piano student. The theme is based on the Buddhist chant "Om Mani Padme Hum", and the harmonies around fourths and fifths. |
| Green Eggs and Ham | Soprano, contralto, bass | No | Yes | This is written in the style of a 60's advertisement, and has some barbershop qualities. |
| The self-fulfilling question | Voice, piano | No | No | Another of my ironic songs, to highlight the insanity of having a crush on someone. |
| Irish blessing | SATB, a capella | No | No | An arrangement of a famous Irish blessing, written especially for a special ROCS concert featuring only original works by young Melbourne composers. |
| So nimm denn meine Hände | Mezzo-soprano, piano | No | No | This was written for Jan's wedding, with lyrics written by Ellen, based on lyrics from a German hymn of the same name. |
| Ja, ich will euch tragen | Mezzo-soprano, piano | No | No | This was written for the wedding of Paul and Anja. The lyrics were originally a poem by Jochen Klepper and the music was written by Ellen and me. |
| Leslie | MATB and piano | No | No | This ballad was written for ROCS to sing and designed specifically to have no soprano part since they had very few sopranos. |
| KBCV chant | Multiple voices and body percussion | No | No | Based on the name of the choir (Kleine Berliner Chorversuchung), it was written as a chant that they could use while they enter the room and arrange themselves on stage. |
| An innocent man | Solo voice plus ATB backing | No | No | This is a short Easter song, written originally for my church choir in Berlin. |
| Sing to the Lord | MMB plus improvised piano backing | No | No | This was written for Angelika's going away service. |
| O Gott, du bist mein Gott | M plus piano | No | Yes | An interpretation of Psalm 63, based on melodies heard just before falling asleep. |
If you need a MIDI player, check to see if you already have MoviePlayer (Mac), Windows Media Player (PC) or timidity (Linux). Otherwise, you can try:
If you are interested in finding tablature of guitar music, you could try the following links:
Here are links to two of my previous music teachers:
