To begin, I grew up as a Suzuki violinist from the age of 2 and was fortunate to learn to jam and perform from the age of 5 in the bluegrass circles of southeast Iowa and Missouri.
Knowing music was my calling, I went to music school at the Interlochen Arts Academy and pursued an active classical music career on the east coast. This is just what I thought a musician was supposed to do. Things have changed to some degree, but at the time, music school was very classical. As we know, that has its own set of cultural limitations. In many ways, responding to this experience has defined who I am now: a teaching musician.
And so, after 10 years of recitals, auditions and academic music study, I departed from the strict code of musical study and freed myself of the conventional approach to music.
What followed was an adventure of epic proportions.
I found myself beating down the door at the Berklee College of Music for an American Roots program that helped me to fuse my natural by ear ability to my classical schooling.
I ended up in studios sampling beats with hip hop performers in Roxbury and Mission Hill. I played harp at the Ritz Carlton on the side to pay the bills.
After befriending a bunch of Turkish DJ’s in the East Village, I ended up in the middle of the late 90’s/early00’s Istanbul electronica scene.
Then, moved to the midwest where I headlined the No Depression-era burgeoning outdoor festival scene, sharing stages with bands like Cornmeal and Yonder Mountain String Band.
I chased this exciting chapter up to the mountains of Nederland, Colorado where jamgrass was redefining the bluegrass industry. I toured and made the living as a performer I had always hoped for. But I was always on the road.
At this point, with the advent of free music streaming, teaching started to become the only way I could make enough money performing without leaving my young family for weeks at a time. This has led to where we are here. My teaching and musical life all in one place. Now let’s do it in a way that includes ALL humans.
Teaching IS being a professional musician, friends. And it is my goal to help my fellow artists young and old to experience this in their own lives. So, I am here offering a musical education with a framework of cultural inclusion, creativity, and the skill set required by the current music industry.
Total World Domination through small vibrating wooden boxes!
