Biography

With 15+ years of varied experience, I have worked with students of all ages around the world. My wide knowledge of music teaching techniques ensures that your lessons will be both individualized and grounded in tried and true methodologies.

After graduating from Boston University with a Bachelor of Music Education degree, my teaching career began in 2005 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado where I led the middle and high school bands to new heights in my two years as Director of Bands. I wrote and implemented new music theory and rock history courses and founded the Glenwood Springs HS Percussion Ensemble, which went on to become Rocky Mountain Percussion Association Concert Percussion champions and Winter Guard International Concert Percussion national finalists. I also trained as an apprentice percussion judge for the Rocky Mountain Percussion Association.

I then moved on to work with high school bands in Massachusetts, while also continuing my training as an apprentice general effect judge in the New England Scholastic Band Association. Following that, in 2008 I undertook a year of Master’s level conducting studies with Dr. Jeffrey Renshaw and Dr. David Mills at the University of Connecticut.

After my time in Connecticut, I relocated to upstate New York in 2009, where I directed the Wellsville, New York middle and high school bands for two years, including the award-winning Wellsville High School Marching Lions Band.

I began my international school teaching journey after leaving upstate New York. From 2011 - 2015, I lived in eastern Europe, teaching at international schools and in my private studio in Bucharest, Romania. I raised the level of quality of the elementary music and theater programs at the American International School of Bucharest in my three years there as an elementary music teacher and theater director.

I composed numerous works for a variety of ensembles while in Romania, including the percussive theater show “SLAM!”, co-written with Mr. Leon Corpening, which debuted in 2012. I debuted my first concert band work, Alpine Overture, with the AISB HS Concert Band in 2014. While in Romania, I also drummed for three years with the rock cover band Neighborhood Watch in clubs and venues around Bucharest and Romania, and performed regularly on saxophone with Jazz Cube, a jazz quartet.

I moved to Moscow, Russia in 2015, where I taught technical theater courses for one year at the Anglo-American School of Moscow before becoming the director of the middle and high school band program, which I led from 2016 - 2019. At AAS Moscow, I developed new percussion ensemble, pep band, and jazz band programs and courses. I also guest conducted annually with the Central and Eastern European Schools Association Middle and High School Bands in such cities as Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Riga, Bucharest and Moscow. My students were regularly selected to participate in honor bands across the world sponsored by the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS).

I am now teaching private lessons, composing, and guest conducting full-time, based out of my studio in Austin, Texas. I look forward to making music with you!