Warped and Wept (Multidisciplinary Performance Piece)

October 2015

Co-developed, co-composed, and performed by Michael Malis, Matthew Daher, and Costa Kazaleh Sirdenis

Instrumentation: piano, drumset, live electronics, text

Warped and Wept is a performance piece that draws on hour‐long conversations with 8 masculine‐identifying Detroit interviewees of various backgrounds and ages. Audio excerpts from their intimate articulations about their relationship with masculinity and with crying are interwoven with live improvised music, movement, animation, installation, and electroacoustic sound design.

Developed through an Artist Hub Residency at the Carr Center, Detroit MI

Performed at the Carr Center, Burdock (Toronto), and La Plante (Montréal).

Lifted from the No of All Nothing (for jazz piano trio)

Purchase the scores here.

Purchase the CD here, or on Bandcamp.

For jazz piano trio
July 2015

Music from my first album, "Lifted from the No of All Nothing." This album and this music is very near and dear to my heart, and felt like a capstone for an aesthetic perspective I had been exploring since at least 2011. This music evolved out of extensive rehearsal with the band, bassist Ben Rolston and Stephen Boegehold, and I can't imagine it sounding like it did without them.

String Up the Moon (Musical Score for Original Theater Piece)

October 2013

Original music for the theater piece String Up the Moon, devised by Samuel Blake, Jim Manganello, Paul Manganello, and Sango Tajima

Instrumentation: piano, drums, percussion, and electronics

Produced by Fratellanza

Debuted at Detroit PuppetART Theater, Detroit MI, October 2013

“Risk-taking and courage, exhibited by talented theater artists who have boldly created something unconventional.” — Encore Michigan

The Mute Quire (Musical Score for Original Theater Piece)

June 2012
Original music for theater production written by Jim Manganello and Paul Manganello

Instrumentation: piano, percussion, electronics

Produced by Fratellanza

Debuted at the New Theater Project, Ypsilanti MI, June 2012

Remounted in at the Galway Fringe Festival, Galway, Ireland 2014

Winner of “Best International Production” at the Galway Fringe Festival 2014

Ask the Sun Rays (for large jazz ensemble)

Purchase the score here, and the score and parts here.

May 2011
For Jazz Ensemble

I wrote this piece at the very end of my undergrad. It’s for a large jazz ensemble. It’s never been performed, and I would love to have it performed one day! If you’re interested in having your ensemble play it, please let me know.

This piece takes its title from a lyric by the rapper Dudley Perkins: “There’s a message in my music / these is the last days / do I need to prove it? / just ask the sun rays” from the Georgia Anne Muldrow track “To the Stage” from her album King’s Ballad.