WELCOME! I am a conductor, arranger, and clarinetist in New York City. This site is constantly changing, so please check back for updates. Also, please take a moment to read my philosophy below to find out what I am all about. I look forward to making music with you!

*

*

*

What does it mean to be committed to the very best in music?

I am dedicated to the idea that great music-making, the very best music-making, results from the combined influences of technical skill, academic understanding, and artistic awareness.

The attainment of technical skill is simple, but by no means easy. This is the work accomplished only through countless hours in the practice studio. By reducing to second nature all the complex actions and gestures involved in the physicality of making music, one is able to focus one's attention on the mental and spiritual aspects.

It is not enough to only be able to recreate the sounds prescribed on the musical page. One must know how those sounds work—how they function—and consequently, what they mean. In order to comprehend a spoken or written language, one must first have a grasp of the components that make up that language, beginning with letters, then graduating to words, then to syntax, and so on. The more of these elements at one's disposal, the more meaning emerges from the language. The very same applies to music. And as with language, meanings change depending on historical, social, and political contexts. Only a firm academic understanding of music will result in a true comprehension of the musical language.

Artistic awareness is perhaps the most difficult facet of music-making to achieve. Although it cannot (in my view) be taught, it can be fostered through a constant, deep questioning of both the self and the music, and also by consciously allowing the music to affect one emotionally. Examining how and why one is spiritually moved by music (and embracing the fact that one is spiritually moved) creates an opportunity to then extend that understanding into one's own performance, consequently eliciting those same spiritual responses in others.

These three distinct, but completely interdependent elements are what constitute the very best in music. In my own musical life, I am committed to exercising all three to the fullest in every gesture I make, every note I write, and every sound I play.