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).
In college, I attended Oberlin College and Conservatory, studying with Tracy Rowell and also studying to receive a degree in computer science from the college. 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.
Shortly before departing from Oberlin College and Conservatory in June of 2022, I received news that I was named an Associate Member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. This, along with Chicago being an exciting city close to home, inspired me to move to the area and see what music could get started there. In the time since moving to Chicago, I have played four projects with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Two particular highlights have been playing alongside high schoolers in the Chicago Youth in Music Festival in March 2023 while getting to hear all about their musical dreams, and recording compositions by the students of University of Chicago in April 2023 under my college conductor, Tim Weiss. I have also joined the Fox Valley Orchestra - their summer pops orchestra starting in July 2023 and their fall/spring classical orchestra starting in September 2024 - and the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra in October 2024. In the Fox Valley Orchestra, I am the Assistant Principal Bass. In the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra, I am the Principal Bass. These orchestras have had major highlights as well. In the Fox Valley Orchestra, we have had very innovative programming, even recording a newly written trumpet concerto. In the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra, we have played concerts to packed halls of children to inspire the next generation of musicians.
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 am thrilled to teach about 12 students both in Downers Grove, Illinois, as well as my hometown area of Lafayette, Indiana. I also get very excited every year to help teach at the Richard Davis Bass Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Check out my teaching page to hear about my thoughts of teaching bass.
