Beijing, China
His compositions have also received awards and recognition including: the 2004 Kaske Fellowship Prize from the Wellesley Composers Conference, jury selections by the 2007 Bent Frequency Composition Competition and the 2006 Columbia Music Scholarship Conference and competition finalist in the Music/07 Eighth Blackbird Completion and the 2004 International Composition Competition Udine, Italy.
Lijiang, Yunnan, China
Langde, Guizhou, China
In China Jeff has also begun folk music research in the southwest province of Yunnan. He has visited and learned the basics of folk music traditions from several minorities including the Naxi, Yi, Dong and Miao. In the remote Western mountains of Yunnan (near the Burma boarder), he
Aside form the Fulbright award, Jeff was also awarded the 2005 Beijing Outstanding Scholar Award from CET Academic Programs. This helped in his preparation for study on the Fulbright.
Tianlong Tunpu, Guizhou, China
Aside from his research on Chinese guqin improvisation, Jeff is also working on music research and analysis projects on various topics. His theoretical dissertation was on the origins of modern Western orchestration in the first sixty symphonies of Joseph Haydn. In the future he plans to complete this project by analyzing and writing about the last forty-four symphonies, focusing mostly on timbral innovation in the Paris and London Symphonies. In Chinese music, Jeff is currently researching and analyzing timbral structure in traditional guqin compositions. With a research focus on philosophy and aesthetics, he is planning to write a paper comparing intuitive nature-philosophies in China (Daoism) and the United States (Transcendentalism) and their influences on their respective music traditions (Chinese Music and American Art Music: Ives, Cage, etc).
As a guitarist, Jeff is involved in improvisation in several different styles. He performs jazz regularly in Beijing in local Jazz clubs and much of his time is dedicated to performing various types of Brazilian music with his duo, quartet and quintet groups. He collaborates with Brazilian singer Lucio Geraldo, arranging Mr. Geraldo’s Bossa/MPB songs. He also collaborates with American Flutist and Shakuhachi player Bruce Gremo. As a duo, they perform traditional Brazilian Choro as well as lesser-known Bossa and Samba songs. Jeff also improvises on guitar with his guqin teacher Li Xiangting and plans to collaborate with Beijing guqin player Wu Na.
For teaching, he has received the 2004 Brandies University Prize Instructorship and the 2005 Tufts University Experimental College Lecturer Award to teach his self-developed class on American Experimental Music. The course takes a broad interdisciplinary approach to thinking about the origins and meaning of Experimental Music by investigating such topics as: American Experimental Music History, nineteenth century American Philosophy, Eastern Philosophy, Cognitive Science (Music perception, Childhood Creativity), Western Music Composition and 20th century American Abstract Expressionist Art. The course is structured around the Walden Percussion Project concept, which gives students a hands-on experience with Experimental music making.
Jeff holds degrees in both improvisation (B.M. New England Conservatory) and composition (M.M. Boston University) and studied composition with Hans Zender for one year at the Hochscule für Musik, Frankfurt am Main, Germany on a grant from the Franz Goethe Stiftung. He was also invited on scholarship to the Darmstadt Feirenkursen für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany and the l’ecole d’art americane in Fontainebleau, France. Currently has successfully defended his dissertation work (work for guitar quartet and Chinese Guqin, an analysis of timbre in Haydn’s early symphonies) at Brandies University in the PhD composition program and will receive his degree in May of 2008.