Hello future students! I am so excited you are here to learn a little about who I am and what I do. Before I talk about myself, I want to express how important music is for all of us. No matter how long you study or practice music - I have been playing guitar for 22 years - there is something unexplainable about it. With 3 degrees in music performance and composition, and countless performances, there is so much music I listen to that moves me, yet I cannot explain why. Music expresses the unexplainable, and I am so excited to help you learn how to bring that experience to other people. My earliest musical memory is watching my dad playing his guitar and listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn. He was wearing headphones and playing notes that sounded completely random. After some time, there was nothing random about it. He unplugged his headphones, played SRV through the speakers, and was playing along on his guitar. He taught himself how to play the song just from listening to it over and over again. This was the impetus to start playing guitar. After learning 3 chords when I was 10 years old, I wrote as many songs as possible. My closest friend was learning drums at the same time, so we started a band. We played punk. After 4 years of practicing, we had our first show in middle school. It was a complete success. By the time I was 16, and remaining self-taught through those years, I started a new band. For the next 7 years, we would play shows all throughout the east coast, releasing several CDs, and having a small following. At 18, I began studying classical guitar at the County College of Morris in Randolph, NJ. This was a discouraging time for: I was able to play songs by Metallica, Children of Bodom, and Megadeth on my electric guitar, but I could barely play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on classical guitar using fingerstyle. Fast forward 6 years, and I was selected to be the guitarist of an ensemble from Montclair State University (MSU) to perform at Carnegie Hall, on classical guitar. My degree at MSU was in music theory and composition, with a focus on guitar. Since then I have been maintaining a career as a composer - receiving a master's degree in 2018 from Bowling Green State University, now living in Chicago with regular commission to write new works - but I continue to fill in on guitar for live bands, do some light studio work, and will always be playing guitar at my home out of pure love and desire of music.