Music

Music is transcendent, primordial, something every person has within them, an expression of soul that is affective and unquantifiable. One of my quests is to help people feel comfortable expressing their voices and rhythms without fear, because music is transformational and fundamental to being human.

Nocturne Spark

For the last few years, I have developed a solo act I call Nocturne Spark which is somewhat experimental and varied in style. In 2020, I took this amazing class to learn Abelton Live and Reason (electronic music production software), and I began the process of writing and recording solo albums featuring new and old original music.

You can check out my debut album The Ecstasy Of Decline in the playlist below and nearly everywhere you can find digital music. You can purchase a download of the record at nocturnespark.bandcamp.com.
You may also see a video of a livestreamed performance I did for the 2020 winter solstice below. I hope you enjoy!

Balkan Music

I perform and teach Balkan and Middle Eastern music with Rumelia Collective. You can learn more about us and find some of our music here. Please stay connected with us on Facebook here. We are in the process of recording a full length record at The Kitchen Sink.

Lifesongs

From 2013-2018, I worked on Lifesongs, an intergenerational arts program that was founded in 2007 by The Santa Fe Opera and Littleglobe under the leadership of Acushla Bastible, Andrea Fellows Walters, and Molly Sturges. Christine Sandoval from the Santa Fe Care Center was the program’s founding partner. In 2011, Lifesongs became a program of the Academy for the Love of Learning in partnership with Littleglobe, and Acushla Bastible is the program’s Director.

We facilitated intergenerational creative collaborations between elders in nursing care and hospice, youth, community members, and artists, offering high production value concerts of the original musical works, in addition to trainings for caregivers and artists. We even recorded an NEA-funded full length album featuring some of the music and poetry. Here is one of the tracks from that album that I was featured on:

Check out some of my reflections about Lifesongs and more documentation here.

Zephyr Community Art Studio

From 2015 to 2020, I founded and managed a cooperative DIY creative space called Zephyr Community Art Studio. We hosted hundreds of bands for live shows, as well as poetry readings, art shows, plays, and the studio was also used for other creative projects including filmmaking. You can find some highlights of the music and art on our Facebook and Instagram pages. You can read more about Zephyr here.

Social Singalongs

I am an aficionado and performer of folk music from around the globe. Over the years, I have developed a deep interest in American folk music, its role in fostering community, and the ways in which it has provided fuel for resilience. One of the permutations of this research interest has been a slow, ongoing process of accumulating folk music, creating lyric books, and organizing community singalongs. You can see more of that here.