more in ABOUT:

bio

projects

non-English materials

FAQ

personal background

I had an unusually free childhood (lived in various group households, communes, and other intentional communities; traveled around the U.S., living in a Volkswagen bus; didn't go to elementary school). I feel very lucky to have grown up with so much freedom and so much support for self-teaching and intellectual curiosity. 

I'm based in Philadelphia, after a decade in NYC. (I maintain some ties with NYC, visiting when I can for concerts and rehearsals, but I now consider myself a Philadelphia composer.)

I moved here with my family, which includes me, my husband, my wife, and our son whom we've raised since his birth as three equal parents. Our family shape is less rare than you might think, because few three-parent families have the luxury of being as 'out' as we can be. (And because TV and media attention to multiple-partner marriages tends to focus on religious polygamy, in which wives are more like possessions for a husband to collect — as opposed to the much more common reality of equal, healthy relationships that are simply non-monogamous.) Our approach to honest non-monogamy is usually called polyamory.

I want to help make our culture safer for every kind of family. One step toward that ideal is for my family to be straightforward about who we are as a queer and poly family, dissolving misconceptions along the way. Another step is for me to focus, in some of my work (including an upcoming opera project), on queer and poly themes/history.

Aside from music and activism-via-music, I'm interested in many creative, outdoors, and techy pursuits. I've done writing of many kinds (creative, scholarly, and commercial) and I love doing abstract and nature photography. During my early years in NYC, I taught myself lots of tech skills and I ended up working on Wall Street, writing web code for JPMorgan-Chase. (My last traditional job was in 2003-2005, teaching as part-time adjunct faculty at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus.)

I need green and trees around me, and I love walking, camping, and swimming in lakes and rivers. I feel well aligned with Buddhism, although I don't practice it formally. I'm deeply focused and peaceful, and I've done some formal study of mindfulness. I love exploring focus and mindfulness as part of creative practice.