I am a composer, and I like to make music.

Some of the people I’ve made music with are the FLUX Quartet, Terminus Ensemble, Pique Collective, and soloists like Michael Fahrner, Anthony DeMartinis, and Clare Longendyke.

I am also a percussionist, and my passion is playing music written by living composers.

I have been playing percussion since I was 10, and in that time I’ve found a passion for working with living composers. Since I’m also a composer, it just makes sense that I would be attracted to working on new pieces. I have worked with composers like Caroline Shaw, George Lewis, Sarah Hennies, and Christian Wolff on their music before, but I have also worked with tons of up-and-coming composers like Nkululeko Zungu, Kevin Kay, and Seare Farhat.

And I am also an educator. I’m currently the percussion coordinator for the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, percussion instructor at the Westminster Schools, and the percussion director at Duluth High School, where I teach their percussion ensemble and marching band.

Oh, and I started a contemporary chamber orchestra. In Late 2023, I started the Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective as a way to bring large-scale performances of contemporary chamber music to Atlanta. We had our first show in November of 2023, and we have several more planned. Check out our (work-in-progress) website for show dates and more info.

I do a lot of things. Most of them are music, some of them aren’t.

Good observation! A lot of that has to do with the fact that almost all of my training is in music composition or percussion.

“Interdisciplinary Musical Artist” is a description that I’m still trying on. I do music most of the time, but the stuff I do within music is definitely outside of the purview of a normal classical musician career. And it’s definitely interdisciplinary, which is why I’ve decided to generally stop using the labels “Percussionist and Composer.”

Most of the non-musical stuff I’m interested in often interacts with and enhances music. For example, I’m really interested in lighting that reacts to music, and how that can create a new understanding of the music. I’m also interested in how film, video, and electronic media interact with music.

I am also interested in how we as people experience with music! Can people experience music in a way that is useful to them? Can the way people see music change the way they perceive it? Can being in a location change the way you hear something?

For me, music should be (and in some ways already is) a multi-sensory physical experience. When you go to a concert, why is the visual aspect of the art often neglected? How can a moving image change the way you hear a silence? How can a color make you feel a certain way about a chord? Can you use these theatrical elements to create another type of counterpoint? These are questions I love to ask myself, and most of my work seeks to answer or explore them in some way.

Good question! Here are some of the things I’ve done!

Some of these things include:

• Programmed, rehearsed, taught, organized, recorded, and produced a high school percussion ensemble concert with Duluth High School.

• Won and performed in a concerto competition at GSU with Baljinder Sekhon’s “Double Percussion Concerto.”

• Ran a Call for Proposals for Duoctane, and commissioned 3 composers in our first season.

• Had a cello quartet played at Lincoln Center.

• Helped produce concerts for Rocket City New Music, a new concert series in Huntsville, Alabama co-founded by one of my former teachers.

• Started a contemporary chamber orchestra in Atlanta, check us out on Instagram!

• Performed a piece by George Lewis on the PASIC 2021 New Music Focus Day. Performed a piece by Karel Goeyvaerts at the PASIC 2018 New Music Focus Day.

• Performed and co-composed incidental music for a Shakespeare Festival.

• Taught, wrote, and arranged music for several High School Marching Bands.

• Tried experimenting with north Indian classical music and jazz.

I am so glad you asked!

Here are just some of the things I’ve got planned for this year:

• An album of music featuring my group, Kudzu Duo, with Chinese instruments and Percussion

• A series of EPs of new works for Bassoon and Percussion

• A solo percussion album!

• More shows with the Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective

And much more! Be sure to check back here as I add new projects and collaborations.

I’m in the DMA (Doctorate of Musical Arts) program in Music Composition at the University of Georgia, working as a Graduate Research Assistant in interdisciplinary art with an Ideas for Creative Exploration assistantship.

I have a MMus Degree in Music Composition and a MMus in Percussion Performance from Georgia State University.

I studied Percussion with Dr. Stuart Gerber and Victor Pons, and Composition with Dr. Robert Scott Thompson and Dr. Nickitas Demos.

I also have a BS in Music Composition from Hofstra University.

I studied Percussion with Sean Ritenauer and Montgomery Hatch, and Composition with Herbert Deutsch and Dr. Chandler Carter.

Great!

I’d love to answer them, let’s chat!