I am really an arranger that fell into orchestrating. There is something really satisfying about taking a tune and turning it into something new. While I have done many arrangements for film and television, my work has also been performed by big bands and orchestras all over the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, The London Symphony, and the Metropole Orkest in the Netherlands.
I provided arrangements of two Moses Sumney songs, “Bless Me” and “Colouour,” for Moses in concert with the BBC Symphony at the BBC Proms 2021.
I’ve contributed a number of charts to shows for the Metropole Orkest over the years, including these for Donny McCaslin and Cory Henry.
I also arranged a Robbie Williams tune, “Come Undone,” for the Metropole Orkest, which then went on to record this tune for his album XXV.
The Metropole Orkest also recently performed a concert tribute to Nina Simone featuring Lisa Fischer and Ledisi, as well as the women of LaSharVu. I contributed a pair of charts to this concert, including “Four Women.”
I’ve also done a number of shows for the Kennedy Center featuring collaborations between various artists and the National Symphony Orchestra. Recently I contributed a couple charts for the Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Gala.
These two selections were from shows we did with Kendrick Lamar and Babyface.
The Kennedy Center jobs all grew out of a gig I did a number of years ago with producer Salaam Remi, who used my strings for Nas’ track A Queens Story:
This then led to me arranging a bunch of Nas tunes for a concert celebrating the anniversary of his album Illmatic. Here’s one of the tracks I did for that show, “Life’s a Bitch.”
Most recently, I worked on a concert with Tobe Nwigwe and the NSO. Here is one of the tracks I arranged, “Can You Imagine”.
I also had the honor to arrange Titanium for Sia and the NSO for the ADL’s In Concert Against Hate. It was one of those rare moments where I got to reimagine the song for the original artist.
I had the amazing opportunity to arrange Training Seasons and These Walls for Dua Lipa’s debut at the Royal Albert Hall. The full concert is now streaming on Paramount+. Here is my arrangement of Training Season, which was used for the promo.
I wrapped up 2024 by conducting my arrangements of Kem’s songs with the NSO at the Kennedy Center. Here are a couple of clips.