About

These songs were written during the 2023-24 NMI Core program, where I returned as a guest “ringer” composer to work with new students. Each song was a response to a specific compositional prompt — a character brief, a dramatic situation, or a craft challenge set by the faculty.

They’re exercises, but they’re exercises with teeth. Each one had to function as a real theatrical song: a character who wants something, a situation that demands music instead of speech, and a lyric that earns its rhymes.