Composition, Teaching, Other Projects
The “Orchestrotica” Plays Esquivel
In early 2005, I directed and performed in a special show with fellow members of the band WAITIKI to bring the easy listening, space-age-bachelor-pad sounds of Juan Garcia Esquivel to Boston. Our desire was to bring in 15 guests and perform a set of his music, using rented sheet music. However, I soon learned that Juan Garcia Esquivel’s sheet music
had been destroyed. So, I started an initiative to transcribe some his works for a 19-piece side project called the WAITIKI “Orchestrotica” (to distinguish it from our core exotica quartet). The first show sold out and was covered in the press.
In April 2006, the entire “Orchestrotica” (now 21 players) was brought to Mexico City to perform Esquivel at the Festival de Mexico. We gave another performance entitled “Homenaje Nacionál á Juan García Esquivel” (National Tribute to Esquivel). I also participated in a panel discussion entitled "Orchestrotica. Proceso del rescate y transcripción de las partituras originales y el Homenaje" about the transcription process (in spanish).
In 2008, this group was renamed "Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica," and is no longer affiliated with WAITIKI. As artistic director, I compose music for the group's standard formation as a third-stream/exotica quartet and also lead and perform in the Esquivel big band.
Vampyr - Composition and performance of an original score for silent film
Shaun Wortis (Boston rock guitarist) and I wrote a new score for this 70-minute film, which opened in 1931. Scored for voice, accordion, gutiar, vibes, cello and percussion, this is the first of what we hope are several filmscoring projects that we will collaborate on. The music and film were performed/shown live on Oct 30, 2004 at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.
Somerville High School Drumline
In 2007, I was hired by the school to re-start the percussion program with assistance from the Mayor of Somerville who provided funding to re-equip the drumline with new instruments. In addition to applying an all-rote teaching method for the group, I also arranged to record the entire drumline in the studios of Hi-n-Dry as part of a community outreach effort to expose kids to careers in music. Along with musician pal Shaun Wortis, I arranged an old rock song by the band Slide to use the entire drumline with some professional Boston musicians backing them up on horns, vocals, and organ.
Nov 7, 2007 rehearsal for SHS Drumline half-time show
The Brahms 4th Symphony Project
A formal web-based analysis of the first movement of Brahm's Symphony No. 4. The project was completed in the Spring of 1998, in partial fulfillment of my Form and Analysis Class (MUS 303) and my Bachelors Degree in Music Peformance at NAU. The project presents my opinions and analysis on Brahms' themes, transition material, and developmental procesees, and requires a specific recording of the work (on CD) for best results. There are graphics displaying the major excerpts that can also be 'played' off the CD using the software download provided. In addition, there is a visual timeline that can accompany the CD as it plays. Although the CD and timeline do not always sync up 100% accurately, the timeline does do a decent job of displaying the current theme/section that is playing on the recording. A musician can also adjust the visual presentation to catch up or slow down to the CD as needed. At the time, HTML Meta-tag refreshes were the easiest way to implement this presentation although today we have better technologies that could display a smoother presentation. Please email me first if you would like to use this material in any way.
A Brief Look at Contemporary Percussion
Another web presentation I created, this project was completed in the Spring of 1999, in partial fulfillment of Music Pedagogy (MUS 210), as well as my Bachelors Degree in Music Peformance at NAU . Another multimedia presentation, this course was geared to teach the non-percussionist musicians in the class about percussion pedagogy through the use of text, photos, audio, and video. Most of the images on the site are linked to audio or video samples. At one time, this course was edited and presented on Smartplanet.com, an online learning website (with the artistic 'lingo' removed to faciliate a non-musician audience). Please email me first if you would like to use this material in any way.