I’ve always loved the orchestra, and I’ve always loved storytelling. When I was in seventh grade, I was in the musical Oliver, and I was amazed how much life and energy came to our rehearsals when we progressed from piano accompaniment to a live orchestra. When I was in high school, I saw a restoration of The Thief of Baghdad, a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks, with a live orchestra playing the score. A few years later I saw the amazing organist Dennis James play the music for The Cat and the Canary, another silent film. I loved the way music and storytelling worked together.   

Around the same time, I also discovered the moody, evocative soundscapes of ambient electronica artists like Harold Budd, Mark Isham, and Vangelis. I also began listening to classical composers from the impressionists to the modern day, and revelled in the complex chords, orchestral colors, and the great variety of emotional landscapes these pieces could portray.

I decided I wanted to see if I could somehow combine all of these music enthusiasms together. I created the Dream Cloud Orchestra project to give myself a place where I could explore how this might sound.