Many challenges came with scoring The Lighthouse Troupe’s most ambitious and creative production to date. Beginning with the unsolved murder of 30 year old Chloe Traeger, this experiential and interactive production has each audience member inhabit the role of a detective, traveling room to room interrogating suspects in real time. Each room housed a different suspect, along with their music that underscored each interrogation, setting a unique and usually foreboding atmosphere that develops over three rounds. The score had to accomplish a lot; each character needed a unique sound that had to become more dire as the evening got closer to ending, while at the same time be very unobtrusive as audience members would be engaging in real interrogation with actors. Coming up with creative solutions to obstacles like these is what I believe makes composition so rewarding, and the result ended up being a project I can be very proud of.

Working with The Lighthouse Troupe in the past, I jumped at the opportunity to score my first theatrical production with the company. Set in the middle of a seemingly ordinary wedding reception, horror unfolds as the true identities of its guests are revealed and a bizarre cult begins to disclose the true reason for this couple’s matrimony. The score for this production was written for a live jazz band and would be performed live during the run of the play. The music would begin as light jazz covers and original compositions that one might hear at a wedding reception, but would progressively become more sinister as the religious cult behind the scenes would begin to surface and perform their own ceremony. Utilizing my performance, arrangement, and composition skills for this production created a very fun and challenging experience not only for myself, but for the band performing the music as well as the audience.

Take the Stand is a single-player surrealist crime drama set in a rural town. You are the only witness of an arson and must examine the crime scene in order to piece together what took place. Afterwards, you are arrested and questioned by the police, and must respond correctly in order to be given a fair verdict. I had the privilege of working on a team with students from the University of Toronto and Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology to create dynamic music that captures the intensity and drama of witnessing an arson as well as the stress of an interrogation room.

Play as an overworked pizza delivery person in this frenetic FPS, pursued by angry customers as you attempt to serve those still waiting for their order before they lose their patience and start chasing you as well! I had the privilege of working on a team with students from the University of Toronto and Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology to lead the creation of the games soundscape. I wrote evolving fun and frantic music to play during each round, which contrasts the calm, restaurant atmosphere of the in game's upgrade shop.

For Ruthie is a dramatic short written and directed by Susan Freed about a family coming to terms with the tragic loss of a child. I was very excited to be working on a project that provided an outlet for me to write a score completely for solo piano. Being able to write at the piano first allowed me to focus on the fundamentals of piano-based film composition, and take simple melodic ideas and develop them for picture.

Furever Home is a short doc written and directed by Anne Huynh about a Kingston based dog rescue and horse sanctuary and the struggles that come with operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a great experience working on a score that balanced the serious subject matter with the fun and adventurous spirit of the dogs living at Dog Tales Rescue and Sanctuary.