I started working on the music of what would become my second opera, Brother Brother, in 2010 when my friends at Iktus Percussion and Cadillac Moon Ensemble commissioned me to write a piece for percussion, strings and flute.  I wrote another section that year for the percussion duo, Beaten Paths, and recorded the full first act of the opera in early 2011.

Brother Brother explores the relationship betwen Orville and Wilbur Wright following their first flights in 1903.  This fascinating story of business, family and legal fights is layered over a secondary story of contemporary brotherhood and the complexities of growing up with an unusual idea of brotherly intimacy.

I have shared 6 of the 9 scenes of the evening-length opera at showcase performances produced by Experiments in Opera and Mantra Percussion in New York and The Industry in Los Angeles.  Over the last four years, there have been 7 performances of sections of Brother Brother, by over 20 different musicians in venues ranging from Reanimation Library Gowanus in Brooklyn to the Hammer Museum on the campus of UCLA.

And now, four years later, I am pleased to announce that there will be a full production of Brother Brother at the Abrons Arts Center in May 2014. The team of artists in the production includes the director Mallory Catlett, designer Mimi Lien, conductorDavid Bloom, Mantra Percussion, Cadillac Moon Ensemble and singers Michelle Kennedy and Patrick Fennig among others.

Tickets for Brother Brother are on sale now when you buy a subscription to Experiments in Opera’s full season residency at Abrons Arts Center.  Tickets to just Brother Brother are not on sale yet, but I encourage you to purchase tickets to Experiment’s in Opera’s full season since the second event, ‘Radio Operas,’  will feature a reprise of my opera short ‘The Collector,’ and because the first event ‘Chorus of All Souls,’ features four amazing works by Jason Cady, Matthew Welch, Jessica Pavone and John Zorn!!

Just to give you a taste of Brother Brother, I wanted to share the video that The Industry put together in support of the performance of 3 scenes in June 2013.  This short video will give you a sense of where this piece comes from in my life and what to expect from the story.

This year, I will be in touch with you throughout the process of our planning and production and I hope that youwill join me and Experiments in Opera as we bring Brother Brother to life.  I have never worked on a project of my music as big and rewarding as this and have never taken this much of a risk artistically.  This is a big deal and I need you with me to make it as much of a success as it will be.   Please join me on this adventure!

After a year or so of writing smaller-scale instrumental and choral works for single events, I have returned to my opera-in-progress, Brother Brother. I am sharing excerpts from this work in June at the Industry’s First Take event in Los Angeles and have begun to plan for a premiere performance of the full piece sometime in the next year or so. Very exciting and also daunting. As I try to get my head back into the piece, I have been looking at some of the original images that inspired this project when I began it several years ago.

The top blueprint is for one of the Wright Brother’s kites that inspired their airplane design.

The below image is a early 1900 photograph of a house fire, which I associate with the fire in the Wright Brother’s workshop that features prominently in the third act of Brother Brother.