I would like to thank my major professor and dissertation advisor, Clifton Callender, for his advice and guidance over the past year while composing Prometheus and other projects along the way. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Liliya Ugay and Mark Wingate for their support and feedback on my dissertation. Additionally, I want to say thank you to Alex Jiménez for his continued support, mentorship, and investment in me from the beginning of my time at Florida State University as the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Fellow. Working closely with him and the orchestras at Florida State University was a truly life-changing opportunity. Lastly, I would like to thank the many composers and teachers who have been influential in my life and compositional development, including Stephen Montague, Scott McAllister, Dan Visconti, and the late Ladislav Kubik, for their unwavering support, encouragement, and invaluable lessons. Outside of the support I have received from those in academia, I want to say thank you to all of my family and friends, but especially to my mother, Carolyn, and my sister, Melissa, for their constant support, and my brother, Zach, for his support and feedback, and for regularly checking all of my percussion parts to make sure they actually work. Lastly, I would like to also thank my wife, Laura Houston, for her continued love, encouragement, and understanding as I pursued my degree at Florida State University. Without the constant support of these people, I would not have had the courage to take risks and achieve all that I have so far in life.
