Local Haunts

LOCAL HAUNTS

“Local Haunts” is a planned symphonic suite exploring the unusual energy of the unusual place where I grew up: a town where the classic horror movie “Friday the 13th” was filmed, where you can drive over the Jenny Jump mountain—named after Jenny, who jumped—to the nearby Shades of Death Road, on which you can find the mysteriously ever-misty Ghost Lake.

People sometimes wonder why my work tends to be a little haunted and dark. I can’t help but think my spooky hometown has something to do with it. In this playful nod to Ives’ “Three Places in New England” (one might think of it as “Three Places in New Jersey”) I hope to confront that influence head-on, just as I celebrate the strange place I know as home.

Ready for premiere in the 2025-2026 season–a very American piece the nation’s 250th–the work will be designed to be modular. With a total duration a ca. 40 minutes, orchestras can choose from its movements to cater to individual programming needs, playing only a few movements, or all of them.

Estimated range of duration: ca. 12 min – ca. 40 min.
Estimated instrumentation: 2222 – 2221 – timp – 2 perc. – piano – strings

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