About Me
I grew up loving music. As a young boy, I knew little theory of music and was more preoccupied with the sound. I listened to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and attempted to plunk the notes out on the piano, even creating rudimentary arrangements of the simple tune, all by ear. Growing up, I grew quite fond of playing the piano and took up the pen to write simple pieces, sometimes for a piano, sometimes an entire orchestra.
Once in New York, I took up trombone, my dad’s instrument, and took up composition seriously at the age of 11. After many years of simple works, my first major work entitled “French Horn Foxhunt” was written for orchestra. It was a major achievement for me and was the spark that told me to make a career out of composition. In high school, I joined the schools’ band, orchestra, and jazz ensemble as a trombonist while writing for the groups. These large-scale pieces fostered the beginning of my conducting after several premieres from the high school auditorium with me at the podium. Outside of high school I also was a member of the Bloomingdale School of Music where I gave trombone recitals and composed pieces for the resident chamber orchestra and several individual student soloists. I was also a trombonist in several ensembles in New York City, bands, orchestras, and jazz bands, and wrote for those groups as well.
I am part of the New York Youth Symphony’s “Making Score” program, a composers’ workshop where master classes and score study furthered my compositional talents and further solidified my place as a composer. Several important premieres of chamber works were received at Making Score’s annual final concerts. The program’s director at the time, Derek Bermel, noticing my skills, recommended me as a young composer to write for the New York Philharmonic’s “School Day Concert” series. The orchestra premiered my new work entitled “Explosions of Joy” to great acclaim. It was a great experience that taught me the importance of networking in the music scene in New York.
After high school I continued my composition studies at the Mannes College, one of the top music conservatories in the United States. I studied with David Loeb, a local New York composer famous for his work with traditional Japanese instruments. After a semester at Mannes, however, I left to pursue an Associate’s degree at Rockland Community College of the State University of New York. I have been remained active in the New York music scene, however, with work in orchestration and arrangements, conducting, and a new commission from my former high school, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts. This new work, entitled “Our Way”, was performed at the school with orchestra and jazz ensemble with me on the podium harkening back to the earlier days of my life at the school.
My goal as a composer is to bring great music to the world that people want to listen to, music that speaks to people, not just artists or musicians, but to people: the layman member either in the concert hall or on the street. I want to speak to them emotionally and spiritually and show them worlds, feelings, and experiences that are only expressible in music.