Current projects

[check back soon. pandemic making it hard to play music out 😢]

Past projects

California Arts Council

From Winter 2018-2020, I am a peer review panelist for the California Arts Council.

“Peer-review panels [. . .] ensure that our grant application review process is democratic, fair and representative of California’s diverse geography; wealth of organizations; racial, ethnic and gender identities; perspectives and knowledge.”

Girls Rock Sacramento

I was a volunteer drum set coach for Girls Rock Sacramento in California.

“Girls Rock Sacramento is a nonprofit 501 C-3 organization that empowers girls through music and music education. We promote an environment that fosters self-confidence, creativity and teamwork. GRS challenges gender stereotypes, encourages collaboration and tolerance among peers, and provides a comfortable and safe place for girls of all backgrounds to express themselves. Through music lessons, workshops, group activities and live performance, girls acquire skills that help guide them throughout their lives.”

World premiere of Paul Schuette’s Oscillator Etudes

Focus Day Evening Concert (2014) Percussive Arts Society International Convention Indianapolis, IN, USA
Sound Check. Photo credit Shane Jones. From left to right: Lauren Fink, Paul Schuette, Ty Niemeyer.



View from the stage before the show.

Video Footage from Cincinnati premiere at the Emery Theatre, Cincinnati, OH (2012)

Drum set player for world premiere of Science! The Musical. by Andrew Goldman

Corpus Playroom, Cambridge, UK

Poster advertisement

Cage / 2012

In 2012, the John Cage (born 1912) Centennial, I was a senior percussion student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as an intern at the UC Archives and Rare Books Library. A variety of projects sprang from a manuscript I discovered in the Archives, which documented the friendship between John Cage and UC Philosophy professor Van Meter Ames, as well as Cage’s time in Cincinnati when he was composer-in-residence at the Conservatory. Each project is briefly described and linked below.

Matriculaphony: A Percussive Circus on Van Meter Ames’ A BOOK OF CHANGES

My realization of Cage’s piece __, a __ Circus On ___.

The program notes explain the process of realizing the piece, which included creating mesostic poems from the text of Van Meter Ames’ manuscript and collecting samples of every sound and from every geographical location mentioned in the manuscript. Those sounds were then layered into a background track which played behind the live performance. Because the manuscript was about Cage, the realization becomes self-referential, with Cage piece, layered on top of Cage piece. Program Notes Program

Live performance of Matriculaphony
Click the image to play

The chance-determined background audio track can be listened to here and is freely available for reuse and modification. Please note that the first ~20 seconds of the hour long track are silent.

Interview with Allen Otte and Lauren Fink

A conversation about Otte’s relationship with Cage, the Van Meter Ames Manuscript, and realizing Circus On Interview by Lisa Haynes-Henry and Matt Specter.

Echoes of Silence

A project of Lisa Haynes-Henry and Matt Specter, which includes a full scan of the Van Meter Ames manuscript. Echoes of Silence

John Cage and Van Meter Ames: Zen Buddhism, Friendship, and Cincinnati

A Masters Thesis written by Serena Yang, largely centered on the Van Meter Ames manuscript.

Miscellaneous

Mahler 3 with the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s Philharmonia Orchestra

Knockin’ on Wood - Red Norvo

arr. Shane Jones

Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin**.

arr. Alex Fragiskatos

Rhode Lines (Band)

Cincinnati, OH, USA