The Music in Me: Pieces for piano, percussion, brass quintet, SATB vocals and string quartet

Music in Me is a compilation of three compositions that reflects the music and sound that influence my writing and arranging. The concept of Music in Me, comes from my experience in many different genres throughout my musical career. I started in classical music, taking lessons at the age eight, but was soon assigned to play for my Pentecostal church. In High School, I was exposed to showtunes and appeared as Musical Director in my first musical theater show, Ain't Misbehavin. After years of performing in several venues from jazz clubs to cathedrals in Rome, my compositional style has greatly developed and matured. Music in Me is a conglomeration of classic style, 21st century style and music theater style. In the first piece Music in Me, my approach was to utilize a variety of percussion instruments that use a part of the body to make the sound.;The story of this piece is about the creation of man and woman. The African drum, Djembe, represents the man and the piano the woman. In the beginning, I use three different four note sonorities for the piano parts, first in different octaves and then in chromatic seconds. A sense of chaos is created in the beginning with the dancers moving independently of each other in sporadic movements. The solo sections for both the instruments and the male and female dancers are expansions of the first theme presented in section A. For the dancers, these sections are set for them to explore their bodies and each other. The piece culminates with a call and response between the percussion and piano intensifying through volume and rhythm.;The second piece, scored for brass quintet, reflects two of my distinct compositional styles. They are entitled, Music in Me Outside (MIMO) and Music in Me Inside, (MIMI). The first piece (MIMO) is primarily tonal with a melodic theme that returns several times in different voices. The form of this piece is ABCA'. The companion piece, (MIMI) is very dissonant with a lot of chromaticism. There are references to the (MIMO) theme in the first section where I use minor chords and counterpoint in contrary motion to demonstrate a conflict and tension feel in the music.;The third piece, I want to be a star, is a musical theater style piece. The instrumentation is for brass quintet, string quartet or string orchestra, 4 voices, piano and percussion.;This composition allows me to demonstrate my lyric writing, text painting and writing for vocals and multiple instruments. My influence for this style of writing comes from composers such as Thomas Waller (May 21, 1904--Dec.15, 1943), a jazz pianist, entertainer and composer who was very unique in the way he incorporated colorful lyrics with stride piano and also 21st century composer and arranger Joseph Joubert (1946) who uses improvisation within his composition structure. Studying their styles for Music Theater showed me how to connect the lyrics of a piece to the music arrangement and incorporate improvisation.;All three pieces reflect the skillset and knowledge I have acquired while attending Southern Methodist University. It is my goal that these music pieces are both entertaining as well as musically intriguing.