I started a Master’s in composition in 2003, and carried on to complete a Ph.D. in 2010. Over the course of these degrees I did a fair amount of writing—this being the primary occupation of the graduate student. This page contains links to some of my recent writings, as well as score and audio samples from my book of compositions for beginning to intermediate jazz ensemble.
Academic Writing
"The London School of Improvised Economics," a chapter in a course reader for MUS 211: Music Cultures of the City at Ryerson University (2011)
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Introduction to my dissertation, which is titled "Fields of Production and Streams of Consciousness: Negotiating the Musical and Social Practices of Improvised Music (2010)
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Conference Presentations
"Improvisation, Creativity, and Contemporary Music Pedagogy," presented at the Canadian University Music Society annual conference, Mount Allison University (2011)
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"After the Avant-Garde: Free Improvisation in London, England and the Emergence of a Modernist Work Ethic," presented at the Ryerson University Music Series: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2010)
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"From Mainstream to Downstream: Jimmy Giuffre and the Deconstruction of the Jazz Art World," presented at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) Canada Conference, Dalhousie University (2009)
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"Calling All Outlaws: Improvising Musicians and the Problems with Social Justice," presented at the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice Conference, McGill University (2009)
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"Getting The Music Off The Page: Practice-Based Research and the Construction of the Practitioner-Theorist," presented at the Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium (2008)
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Music Education
I have written a book of progressive compositions for beginning jazz ensemble. Details about this are on my Teaching page.