Freelance composer, producer, music collaborator based in Madison, WI
Original Work
Original Work
Concert Works
Agnus Dei
A setting of the Requiem text for solo Soprano and Chamber Orchestra that subverts expectation while effusing beauty. Carefully florid lines from the singer are backed by dense and flowing chords from the orchestra.
Solo Piece for Saxophones
A solo work using three different instruments: B♭ Soprano, B♭ Tenor, and E♭ Alto saxophone. The three sections explore the same thematic material framed by the timbre and idioms of each unique saxophone.
Lamp of Liberty
From a song cycle of impactful publicly spoken words, this elided quote from Abraham Lincoln closed one of his famous debates with Stephen Douglas.
The setting for solo Tenor takes Lincoln’s oratory through angular passages, becoming more strident and insistent as the piano continually exchanges consonant and dissonant clusters, finally finding sonority at the conclusion of the text, but refusing to release the listener’s attention as it closes.
Piano Work
Segments from an accompaniment that build patterns of tone clusters to echo the original melodic line.
Film Works
Score Segment – Fire Sale
Disfigured acoustic and digital instruments layer tension and inevitability as a character on screen succumbs to an evil curse. Score segment from the horror short Fire Sale by Vermillion Media. Full Score available on Soundcloud.
Score Segment – The Talk
A piano and guitar fight for tonal control as the nefarious backdrop of this tense film is finally revealed. Score segment from the sci-fi drama short The Talk by Vermillion Media. Full Score available on Soundcloud.
“Feed” End Titles
Music featuring several filtered digital and acoustic instruments developing a theme both melodically and through audio production. Created for the film “Feed” by Vermillion Media
“Market Capricious”
An electronica track featuring layered synths over electroacoustic drum kit layers. Created as diagetic background music for a scene in the film “The Edge” by Vermillion Media
“Problem Solver”
An off-kilter bossa nova originally written for an unused surreal waiting room scene in a film project. The melody becomes more unhinged as the song goes on.
Experimental Works
“Constraint”
This work for a mixed ensemble of unspecified sound and instrumentation features algorithmic improvisation parameters with cues for some notated sections used according to player choice.
MJ Mohns 