My Story

(This here page is what it says it is, my story of how and why I became a musician and what music means to me. To read about my teaching experience, just click here.)

First Steps

I grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, an inner-ring suburb of Washington, DC. Our parents exposed us to all of the arts and culture they could, and as such I’ve been making music in one form or another for my entire life. As young children, my sister and I grew up singing along with the Oldies 100 radio station and Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street. Mom also played piano, and two or three times a week we’d all gather round and sing and play together. It was a wonderful way to bond with family, and forged an early link in my heart and mind between music and a feeling of family and community. As we got older, we began singing in church, school, and summer camp groups, and these experiences reinforced that sense of togetherness.

Though I lacked the words to express it, I realized from a very young age that the right music in the right place and time could give me a feeling like no other. It compelled me to laugh and smile, to sing and dance. It could even move me to tears (Somewhere Over the Rainbow and the Free Willy soundtrack are my favorite and most embarrassing examples, respectively :) Music, I realized with wonder, was basically a magic spell. The style and genre weren’t important; I found inspiration in everything from Simon and Garfunkel (a particular favorite of my parents and a regular feature on the battered cassette deck in our station wagon) to Swan Lake. The only thing that mattered was that feeling. Like all kids, adults would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I kept a little list of career ambitions, and it looked like this:

1. Superhero

2. Ninja

3. Musician

Superheroes are, of course, the coolest thing in the world. Ninjas do not have superpowers, but I mean come on, they’re NINJAS, and therefore second-coolest. Musicians are technically neither superheroes or ninjas, but some superheroes can control people’s minds or change how they feel just by talking or maybe wiggling their fingers or both, and so can musicians, so musicians ARE IN FACT SUPERHEROES!

It sounds silly now, but that leap of little-kid logic made me the musician I am today, and formed the core my playing and teaching philosophies.

Mom implored me to take piano lessons as a kid, but I’d developed a deep-seated love for/obsession with (of all things) the Bob Seeger Band, and was utterly taken with the sound of the saxophone solo on “Old Time Rock and Roll”. Then we went to the see the California Raisins on Ice (I mean, it was the ‘80’s, so of course we did), and that sealed the deal. There was literally nothing cooler than an enormous cartoon fruit snack playing Marvin Gaye (while skating, I might add!), and the raisin with the saxophone was the coolest one by far!!!

To their everlasting credit, my parents finally relented and rented me my first saxophone to play in our little elementary school band. I can still remember the day they brought it home. Never mind that it was one of the cheapest student instruments money could buy; to me, it was the Horn of Gabriel, Duke Ellington’s piano and Jimi Hendrix’s guitar all rolled into one. I was so excited I was jumping up and down. I flung open the case, jammed the horn together, picked it up and began to blow. In a day or two I was learning to play, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

I cherish these memories and think of them often. I do this because I work with many children taking their first steps down the same path, and it helps me to experience music and its appeal the way they do. It’s all too easy for us teachers and performers to forget that we too were once beginners, bereft of scales and technique and experience, and how differently we felt about music and playing at that time. As a music educator, I believe my job is as much to inspire as it is to instruct. It’s up to me to ensure that my students do more than take their lessons; they need to enjoy them. In the pursuit of these goals, there can be no better guide than the memories of one’s own musical journey.

To read more about my teaching methods and philosophy, click here.

Leveling up

I took private lessons with renowned jazz saxophonist Paul Carr, and in Middle School and High School I played in the symphonic, marching, pep, and jazz ensembles, gaining exposure to a wide variety of styles and performance environments. We had a standout music program, and the high school jazz band was particularly exceptional; we even won the state championship my Senior year! We were a close-knit group of young people that played incredibly challenging material, and we inspired each other to practice, learn, and improve. Jazz band taught me so much; it gave me a sense of confidence and achievement and motivated me to start taking my playing to a truly professional level.

Meanwhile, my friends outside of the band were music aficionados one and all, and gave me a very different course of study in rock and roll, folk, reggae, funk, and more. They told me what to listen to and taught me to play guitar. We chased our love of music in any and all directions, seeing shows, playing covers together, and spending long nights together listening and sharing the songs we loved.

I attended Carleton College in Minnesota. The school’s music program was almost completely classically oriented, and I chose to major in American Studies instead, but I kept playing and practicing my craft. My friends there loved music every bit as much as the ones I’d known at home, though, and taught me to chase new horizons. Among other things, they turned me on to the Grateful Dead, hip-hop, African and Latin American music, indie rock, and the otherworldly soundscapes and ground-shaking grooves of electronic music. I joined my first rock band, splitting my stage time between saxophone, guitar, and keyboard, and it completely changed my world. We wrote songs! We played at parties and got to drink beer on stage!! People danced!!! I even befriended and got to perform with some of the school DJ’s and producers. These were new horizons for me, and taught me not to limit myself to any one sound, instrument, or style. I made up my mind that I would always go my own way artistically and make whatever music moved me. That decision has been my touchstone ever since.

Becoming my best

By the time I graduated from Carleton, there was just no other life for me. I was and would always be a musician, body and soul. In 2006 I auditioned for the Berklee College of Music, got in, and was even given a scholarship! It was an amazing experience. I was immersed in a world of knowledge and information I could barely fathom before I got there, and for the first time ever I was surrounded by like-minded musicians who’d put their passion at the center of their lives.

It gave my career choice a weight and sense of validation I’d never gotten before, and I threw myself into the work. I majored in performance and took courses in piano and percussion. I played in the most diverse ensembles I could find, from Motown and Jazz Rock Fusion to Afrobeat and the music of Bob Marley. I shared stages and studios with world-class musicians and educators, and we pushed each other relentlessly to be the best players we could be. I learned the intricacies of music theory and arranging and made my first forays into composition and production. Berklee changed my life; above all else, it allowed me to cross the line in my mind between amateur and professional.

To read more about my performance experience, click here.

out in the world

Since my time at Berklee, I’ve made my living completely from music. I’ve been a street performer and played weddings, bar mitzvahs, and parades with commercial groups. I’ve done studio work. I worked for years as a dance class accompanist at Boston, Curry, and Emerson Colleges. I’ve played club shows, music festivals, and short tours with fantastic original groups. I’ve helped write and record two records and this year I’ll release a third. And through it all, I’ve been a teacher.

I love teaching, and always have! I’ve given African drumming and guitar and ukulele classes and countless private lessons through independent booking and for prominent area music education companies like Jammin’ With You and the Children’s Music Center of Jamaica Plain. I’ve learned that teaching is a skill and an art form all its own, and through long study and experience I’ve learned to do it well. I’ve shared my story with you because I believe it is an intrinsic part of what kind of teacher I am; that is, one who loves music himself and has an enormously deep and broad depth of musical experience to draw upon. I’ve made it my business to know as much about music as I possibly can, and to follow my passion wherever it leads me. I encourage you to do the same, and I’m here to help in any way I can.