I believe this is the first time I have had occasion to write “2023” on anything! As always, it feels funny. Sometimes for a few weeks of each new year I forget and write the number of the old year out of habit, but at least I hardly ever have to write a physical check […]

I hope you had a good Christmas Day! It may seem odd to some people, but for us “Christmastide” season does not begin until sunset on Christmas Eve, and in much of Europe Christmas trees still do not go up until then. Ours went up just a few days before that. The trade-off is that […]

As they get done, I’ve been posting here my virtual mockups/demo’s of the new pieces from my in-progress ballet. Below, I am happy to share with you the newest one! These will be recorded by a live human orchestra in Europe in fall of 2023 for an album and performed live with dancers in the […]

Happy Thanksgiving to all! It may come as a surprise to those who know that my hobby is cooking, but for me this holiday is not primarily about food. It is not about parades, football, autumn, days off from work or school, pilgrims in boxy hats or what they may have done right or wrong, […]

In this diary entry I’m happy to share with you not one but two spankin’ new short pieces of music for my ballet titled Raffaella. The first one is called “Raffaella’s Communion and Pas de deux with the Prince.” In her roughly Renaissance-era, Italian fairytale setting, Raffaella has a religious coming-of-age ceremony and then dances […]

Things have finally relaxed a bit here at Hilltop. I have felt a kind of weight lifted that I didn’t even know I was carrying. It was the whole process of traveling and recording an album and all the things and people that went with releasing it. I don’t regret a minute of it, of […]

Last Friday, October 14, the day finally came for our big record release party, also serving as a celebration of my designation by the state legislature and the governor as Composer Laureate of the State of Tennessee. We were happy to celebrate with over sixty guests who, as their busy lives allowed, were able and […]

After all that hot heat, a hint of a chill huffs across Hilltop. The deer are descending in multitudes, munching in the meadow on our acorns. Pumpkins are piled in places in our garden, garnered from a rural road. Only please do not put anything pumpkin into my coffee. In a season of such abundance […]

Welcome back to the Hilltop! It appears to be party time! First, today happens to be my birthday, and I’m NOT a big birthday person, so you don’t need to wish me happy birthday, just pretend I’m 29. But hey, any excuse to have a gathering with good friends, food, and libations! It will be […]

Greetings from Hilltop! If you received an event invitation by e-mail concerning me, kindly do remember to répondez s’il vous plait (“Please reply”) using the link on the attached invitation form, both for a yay or a nay. Nowadays I feel badly inconveniencing you to have to take time to decline an invitation you didn’t […]