Until 2014 I worked as a professor of composition and Director of the Electronic Music Studio at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. My music has been performed in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world too. I was born in Michigan, attended Yale University (B.A.) and the University of California, Berkeley (M.A.). Over numerous years I studied composition with Darius Milhaud, Ben Weber, Andrew Imbrie, and Karlheinz Stockhausen; piano with Robert Helps and Barbara Shearer; and after the academic work was completed I became friends and worked closely with David Tudor and John Cage in several performance situations. My principal mentor in electronic music was Anthony Gnazzo.

 

After graduation I collaborated with the Canadian composer Martin Bartlett in "Deus ex Machina" --- a touring performance ensemble utilizing home-made electronics in a variety of eccentric and sometimes noisy compositions. Then I was hired to develop the electronic music studio at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; in ensuing years I taught a wide variety of courses there in music theory and history. I was Chair of the Composition Department for a few years too.

During this time I was a student of Tibetan Buddhism, and taught a summer course in electronic music at the first year of the Naropa Institute Buddhist University, in Boulder, Colorado. A few years later I was invited to present several performances in the Vancouver area with composer John Adams.

 

In 1989 I was invited to be guest composer at the Vatinee School of Music in Bangkok, Thailand; and in 2001 I was the featured guest composer, lecturer and performer at the 7th Pusan (Korea) Electronic Music Association festival. The people and the food in both places are unforgettable.

 

My work includes electronic music for recorded media alone and with live performers, and quite a lot of music for live performers alone as well. My electronic work "Nagasaki" was awarded a prize at the Bourges Festival in 1983, and "Marrying Music" for Two Pianos was Winner of "Diploma and Medal" from the 3rd Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition in 1983. I have received grants from “Meet the Composer” and twice received grants from the American Composers Forum. 

 

I live with composer/pianist Mikako Endo; our son Jesse, works in the computer field, and  performs on cello when he's not fooling with math and electronics.