After almost 30 years of teaching at the University of New Hampshire, I have become well attuned to the enormous stress and anxiety that can consume my students as they navigate the varied and intense pressures of school and adulthood. It is difficult to see them struggle, and I have long wanted to write a piece that would somehow support them as they tackle these challenges. When I was on sabbatical in the fall of 2025, I finally had an opportunity to write the piece I had been imagining, and I immediately thought of Dr. Kevin McDonald and the Wellesley High School Keynote Singers for a possible premiere. Dr. McDonald is a UNH alumnus who has built one of the finest choral programs in New England and I knew he would embrace both the message of my work and the minimalist compositional concepts I imagined. Thankfully he agreed!

Bounce is composed in three sections. The first is in C Dorian and uses an additive process to gradually create a full diatonic row, building to the climactic words "Enough, too much." The second section is essentially a reverse of the opening portion, with the row gradually falling apart, now in C minor, and eventually coming to rest on the word "Surrender." The final section, in C Lydian, begins with the word "Rise" and, once again using the additive process from the first section, builds to a climactic arrival on the words, "Just Bounce," before resolving in the final measure on the word "Hope."

Bounce was composed in the fall of 2025 for Dr. Kevin McDonald and the Wellesley High School Keynote Singers and premiered by that ensemble in May 2026.