About

One of my mentors and I have long enjoyed sharing a laugh about how every bio in the world seems to open with or at least include the phrase “award-winning,” and so I’m going to endeavor to skate past that and instead engage in a bit of story-telling.

When I was young, the piano was my gateway into music, first and foremost as a way to engage with the tunes that underpinned my favorite moments in the movies and games I was growing up with. I was captivated by the way music could capture emotion, and even as the details of a scene might fade from memory, the intensity of that feeling could be kindled anew just by hearing those notes one more time. Torn between interests, my academic career was a mix of composition and performance study, but I eventually received my Masters in Performance (under Charles Fugo at the University of South Carolina), and then relocated to Los Angeles to participate in the film scoring scene.

Through a bit of luck, I found my way into the business or orchestrating music for film, TV, and video games, both as part of larger teams led by award-winning (sorry Tim) composer and orchestrator Tim Davies, as well as independently. Over the span of more than a decade I’ve had the privilege of contributing to the scores for some of the most popular movies and games to have graced our screens.

I never managed to forget my first love, though, and have continued playing piano through the years. Eventually I also realized how important it was to me to share that love with others, and help them tell their own musical stories at the keyboard. I love being an agent of curiosity, and shepherding students along the path to their own musical discoveries. The magic of this art lies in all that it can make us feel, all that it can say and express, and all without a single word spoken. I’m grateful to be able to share that with the children and adults I work with, and to hear the stories they can share with me.