Commission a Piece
Commissioning new music is one the easiest ways to support the Lab. In addition composing other services include orchestration, and performances on didjeridu, piano or both.
If the spirit moves you, please consider commissioning a new work, or donate to the Mad Composer Lab Project Fund.
The MCL Project Fund, provides an opportunity to not only fund new works, but also provide music lessons, free music composition techniques, and samples for other creative types.
So everything is invested in the process of music exploration, conservation, and innovation. To commission a work, please email the mad composer lab. Please include details such as the reason, the ensemble type, length, and expected performance date.
If you would like to make a donation to the Project Fund, please visit the donation page.
For film scoring services, please contact the Burke Management Firm directly for schedule and availability.
Expression of Gratitude
Since 2020
Wide Blue, and Purple, and Pink 2025
Wide Blue, and Purple, and Pink is a sonic response to a visual drawing by Portland artist Joni Smith. This collaboration was initiated by North Pole Studio an amazing organization empowering artists with autism & I/DD to lead self-determined lives & careers in the arts. To collaborate with Joni was truly and honor and an insightful way to “listen” to her works through observing her movement, timbre and use of color and rhythm.
Soundcheck Gardens of Golden Gate Park 2024
Soundcheck: Gardens of Golden Park honors the practice of conservation, preservation, and innovation for future generations. This work is designed to guide listeners through the Redwood Grove at the historic San Francisco Botanical Gardens. These ancient relics offer a unique space of reflection and being. This is a site-specific immersive concert composed by Kennedy Verrett for 4 musicians. A strolling audience will be enveloped with timeless deep listening sensations. A unique sonic event within Golden Gate Park, coupled with the visceral and rich culture of the cityscape–a bassoon player at the foot of a giant sequoia, a bass flute blessing the ferns, a bass setting the roots, while a piano soothes the soul. This work is commissioned for Flower Piano 2024 by Sunset Piano.
SoundCheckEarth 2022
SoundCheckEarth led listeners into the natural world where the earth, humans and animals, are part of the soundscape inside the pristine beauty of Joshua Tree National Park. A site-specific immersive acoustic concert composed by Kennedy Verrett for 17 musicians, SoundCheckEarth providing a strolling audience on the half mile walking path at Cap Rock with wondrous deep listening sensations. An unprecedented sonic event within the Park, coupled with the monumental beauty of the landscape–a bassoon player sheltered by a Joshua Tree, percussionists perched on boulders, strings, woodwinds and brass resonating with the rocks–SoundCheckEarth was truly an unforgettable experience for those lucky enough to attend.
Legends Give Us Wings 2020
Legends Give Us Wings is a piece commissioned by my friend and colleague David Yamamoto. This piece is a dedication to Dave and his legendary contributions to the world of music both as a musician, arranger and educator. The lessons we learn from our mentors, give us the wings we need to fly, freely.
5 is Prime : 4 is Magic 2020
5 is Prime : 4 is Magic is a minimalist sonic exploration, designed with the intention of enchantment and the discovery of exploraing new perspectives. This piece was conceived for piano quartet, but can be adapted to other instrumentations rather easily. Essentially it’s an enigma canon with 5 Cells, structured and time formatted using a Japanese tanka poetry structure. Each musician begins in the middle and follows the structure, expressing the same material as the others, but in a way that feels free and exploratory.
Works in Progress
Madame Theremin Opera. 2020-2026
Madame Theremin spans three worlds: the real, the unreal, and the surreal. First, the real: Leon Theremin, the Russian inventor of an electronic musical instrument played without touching it, lived in New York for a decade and married Lavinia Williams, an African American dancer. He was ordered back to Russia and then sent to the gulag, while Lavinia went on to open a school of dance in Haiti. The opera takes place on the night of Leon's arrest in 1938. The unreal is Lavinia’s imagined journey that night, from a near lynching to an underground sanctuary of ancient African music, art, and religion. Here we encounter the surreal: a vodou priestess descended from personages invented by the artist Frohawk Two Feathers (Umar Rashid), whose critically acclaimed practice depicts an alternate history of colonialism. Powerful forces set Lavinia on a new path, but she is unable to save her husband, a victim of “progress”. Through a real and imagined past, this work is a dramatic commentary on our present.
The Exorcism of America
The United States of America has a lot of demons with which we need to reconcile. The Exorcism of America is a multi-movement mixed media work combing the art of music, dance, poetry, theater and technology. With this ritual we will build the world we need rather than the one we continue to destroy. To hear a few excerpts, click the button below. Visuals contain nudity, you will need to verify your age for those previews.