Welcome! Some links are below, followed by more about me.
I first picked up the bass when I was going into fourth grade, and started really getting into it in sixth grade. While through middle school, computer programming was entirely my focus, I kept playing bass more and more, and kept being a part of more and more ensembles at West Lafayette High School in Indiana. I especially loved my time with Wabash Valley Youth Symphony, as I was the principal bass of that ensemble from ninth grade to the end of high school. By my junior year of high school, it seemed to me that it would be impossible for me to put the bass away in college. So, I branched out a little my senior year, driving to Indianapolis every Sunday for both lessons with David Murray, professor of bass at Butler University, and New World Youth Symphony Orchestra (now renamed Indianapolis Youth Orchestra).
Now, I have completed three years of study of double bass with Tracy Rowell at Oberlin Conservatory. Since I am a part of Oberlin's dual degree program, I am expected to take five years to graduate, so I still have some time left. I have been incredibly grateful for all of the varied ensembles and experiences I have been able to have, both back in Indiana and at Oberlin. I was able to play jazz in high school, even improving enough to win the Tony Zamora Jazz Scholarship in Lafayette in 2017. Peter Dominguez, jazz bass professor at Oberlin Conservatory, gave me lessons for two years during my time at Oberlin. Through a special trip at my high school, I even got to both perform jazz and sing with a small choral ensemble in Beijing and Shanghai, China, in March 2017. I won the concerto competition of Wabash Valley Youth Symphony in 2016, being able to perform the second movement of the Koussevitzky Bass Concerto with them in February of 2017. Finally, through Oberlin Orchestra's tour in January of 2019, I was able to perform on the stage of Carnegie Hall, which had previously only ever been in my dreams.
I could go on and on over everything that I am grateful for, but I wanted to close it with one that you can be a part of - teaching! I have been thrilled to teach four students during my time in West Lafayette before graduating from high school, as well as three students in Oberlin during my third year. I also worked with various students in the Oberlin public school system. Check out my teaching page to hear about my thoughts of teaching bass.
