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I am a performer, teacher, and composer from Boulder, Colorado. I earned my Bachelor's of Music Education from the University of Colorado, and my Masters of Music Education from the American Band College of Ashland, Oregon. Growing up, I always loved to perform. I was in improv theater (which it turns out helps quite a lot with teaching), and had the time of my life as the only percussionist in the 5th grade band. As I started to get older, I loved band, but only really liked playing drums, and tried to avoid getting anything else, especially mallet parts. After a few years I realized the only reason I didn't like the other instruments was because I wasn't good at them, and found the simple solution: get good at them. Soon mallet percussion went from my biggest fear to my greatest strength. Since then, I have always loved to learn new things, and believe that there is no skill which cannot be learned.
Once I got old enough to join marching band, I knew I had found the place for me. I loved the activity so much that I started performing at the same time with both my high school and the World Class WGI ensemble Rise Percussion. I continued in this world, eventually performing with Altitude Percussion and the Blue Knights Percussion Ensemble, as well as DCI ensembles The Battalion, The Academy, and aging out with Always at the Blue Knights. Getting to perform with these high level ensembles was a big part of becoming who I am, and they taught me dedication, grit, self improvement, and how to achieve a skill at the very highest level possible. Most of my performing career has been in the world of percussion and front ensemble, but I have gotten to play trumpet in both college wind symphony and DCI, and I thoroughly enjoy learning and performing on a wide variety of instruments.
Near the end of high school, I realized how much I love teaching, and using my experience and knowledge to help others be successful. My first job in high school was teaching Climbing at a summer camp, and since then, I have taught elementary and middle school band and orchestra across Colorado. I have also taught extensively in the world of marching band, anywhere from starting brand new ensembles to winning state championships, as well as teaching for the Blue Knights Open Percussion Ensemble. My first teaching job ever was teaching 5th grade online band during covid, which was described best by Randall Standridge: “I found the whole zoom experience to be like a séance." After that experience, I had a newfound appreciation for what live music can bring to someone's life. To me, teaching music is about more than just technique and scores - it's about creating experiences and teaching people how to be people. There is nothing that can ever compare to the experience of being in an ensemble, and creating a product bigger than the sum of its parts.
I first started composing at the start of high school. At first this was mostly just playing around with the software, discovering all the different tools and making funny sounds. Gradually the pieces started to have more and more intent and thought behind them, and I tried to use specific tools or ideas. This could be inspired by a specific instrument, a newly discovered tool, or something in a piece that I played in band or marching band that I wanted to emulate. The more I wrote, the better I got, purely through experience. This is a required part of any creative discipline, and is summed up well by Lalo Davila: “It's going to suck until it doesn't." The more I learned about music theory, the better I got at writing. College music theory in particular gave me a massive boost in my compositional abilities, as I finally truly understood chords and chord progressions, and how to use or break rules to fit the goals of the piece. I see music theory not as rules but as tools in the toolbox of the composer - the more tools that I had, the more I could do. To anyone interested in composition, I cannot recommend enough learning more music theory, and to never see it as restrictions on how to write music, but as options and explanations as to why a composer might pick certain options.
During college, I started writing for marching ensembles. This started simple, editing a couple individual parts for the section I taught to make them a better fit for those particular students. One particularly impactful moment was the first time I had written totally original music - extending the ballad of a show by 30 seconds - and without knowing it wasn't originally included, the judge mentioned it as his favorite part of the show. This gave me the confidence that I could finally write “real" music (if there really is such a distinction). I started writing more and more elaborate parts, including several solos I'm quite proud of, learning more about show design in the process. Since then I have improved substantially in my writing, and ensembles under my direction and playing my music have won a multitude of 1st place scores in Music Composition and Music Effect at competitions. Perhaps the most important skill I gained is how to write music that is good not just for an audio file, but for real life - music that can be learned and performed effectively by real people and ensembles.
While earning my Masters, the best facet of the program is that each year would feature several guest composers, who would rehearse and conduct their own music for public concerts, as well as give sessions on whatever was most important to them about composition, music, or education. Many of these composers would also spend time just informally talking with us between classes or at meals. Not many people can say they have been stranded in an airport with Carol Brittin Chambers or been to karaoke with Randall Standridge (who, by the way, is incredible at karaoke). I was lucky enough to learn in this way from Randall Standridge, Julie Giroux, John Mackey, Carol Brittin Chambers, Brian Balmages, and Frank Ticheli, all of whom are incredible in a myriad of different ways. I learned so much from these people, including about composition, education, the intersection of the two, and that composers are real people just like the rest of us. They inspired me enough that I am using some of their quotes in my own bio, and they continue to inspire everything I do in music.
After meeting this incredible people and teaching for a few years, I started composing my own music. Each piece has a different inspiration, from a niche educational role no other piece has yet covered, to a new take on a familiar idea, to a piece I think my students would love, to an idea that's just stuck in my head. Some pieces are inspired by the educational excellence of Standridge and Chambers, creating music that will guide students to success. Some pieces are inspired by the incredible soundscapes of Giroux, Mackey, and Balmages, creating music the performers and audiences alike will love. Some pieces are created in the style of Ticheli - letting the music speak first, without any goal or starting point in mind, and then connecting them to create something natural and beautiful. If I'm lucky, sometimes it's all three. I don't think I will ever write a perfect piece of music - I don't think such a thing exists. But I do know that I write music that I love, and I hope to use it to give to others the same amazing experiences music has given me.
Below are some of my graduate projects that were created as part of my Masters Degree. They are not necessarily related to anything else on this site, but they took forever, so I want to show them off. Feel free to check any of them out. If you find any of them helpful or use them in a classroom please let me know - not for the sake of copyright, just because I'd love to know!
The science of how brass instruments work is quite simple, from how they make sound to how they change notes to intonation tendencies. Woodwinds, however, had never made sense to me. As a very math and science kind of person this bothered me, and also meant I couldn't teach it effectively. I definitely underestimated how complex some parts are, but I also think it's really cool once you finally understand it.
This project solves this problem by fully explaining each piece of how woodwinds work in an easy to read website, with each concept explained in three levels to be appropriate for any age of student.
The "20/30" is the final, and most difficult, project of the American Band College. It is 40,816 words and 137 pages, plus pictures. This project is the culmination of 20 clinicians and 30 compositions
(hence the name) throughout the time in the program.
This project is particularly aimed at fellow teachers, providing information directly from legendary educators, musicians,
and composers, as well as detailed information about high
quality compositions. It also is likely longer than every
assignment I wrote in high school combined.
My first project - I took 10 pieces from the ABC repertoire list and
made lead sheets for each of them for each instrument. This one
page sheet includes any relevant rhythms, articulations, melodies, counter melodies, or anything else appropriate to the piece. The
goal is to use this to rehearse the music with all students being
able to play these parts in unison.
Similar to the Lead Sheets project, this one expands it for 5 pieces. This collection is instead a 4 page full band warm up set for each piece, which scaffolds through the most important skillsets of each piece, from articulations to syncopation to uncommon scales to tuning chords. The warm ups are custom written for each piece, with the goal of connecting the dots between brand new skills and the final product.
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