The Velvet Algorithm (2023) is composed for 12 musicians with electronics. Behind this piece is a fully conceived album length project, a complete computational environment for composing, and a compositional design that allows for the material to be repurposed, recombined and further manipulated to create a family of pieces that all point back to the instrumental composition, The Velvet Algorithm. The first performances was in January of 2023 at the Festival Empreintes in Lyon, France with Fabrice Pierre conducting. The U.S. premiere was given by the ECO Ensemble at UC Berkeley with David Milnes. All pieces in the Velvet Algorithms project, except for the instrumental composition The Velvet Algorithm, are studio/electronic remixes derived from the larger instrumental composition.

The Velvet Algorithm was composed to be reconfigurable in a manner inspired by the combinatorial genetic alphabet A,T,G,C. The Velvet Algorithms project is a concept album and is on-going in production. Part of the project involved a recording session at CNMAT where each instrument was recorded in an isolated room, further increasing the possibilities for realizing the recombinations, which are entitled "V-Algo Extractions".Larger sections in The Velvet Algorithm are designed to be overlapped on top of one another and individual parts of one section can be recombined, added, or subtracted with parts in another section. This process involves extracting elements from various parts of the piece to create entirely new works, which are then further refined in the studio. The resulting collection forms the library of V-Algo Extractions. If a listener starts by exploring all the V-Algo Extractions first, the final piece in the series serves as their culmination -- a "mother" work that might then be more easily apprehended. Examples of ongoing V-Algo Extraction work are provided below. The individual parts are also combinatorial in terms of tempo, allowing them to function as mensural canons. In this process, one part may move faster or slower than its original counterpart, making the V-Algo Extractions a type of meta-compositional process based in the root design of the "mother".

The US premiere was by the ECO Ensemble, David Milnes, conductor
Tod Brody, flute, Kyle Bruckmann, oboe, Matt Ingalls, clarinet, Alicia Telford, horn, Jamael Smith, bassoon,Loren Mach and Megan Shieh-Cruz,  percussion, Hrabba Atladottir, violin, Jooyeon Kong, violin, Ellen Ruth Rose, viola, Leighton Fong, cello, Richard Worn, double bass

I remain forever grateful to the extraordinary musicians that have worked with me to perform these difficult pieces.

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