About Me
I'm, uh... have a lot of interests. I'm a musician, composer, and music teacher, but I'm also an occasional computer programmer, poet, game designer, fictional language creator, short story writer, sound designer, film editor, and, well, anything else interesting that crosses my path.
Education
Composing
Music has been my one constant interest since I begged my parents for piano lessons as a child. (They were both doctors, neither of them particularly artistic in any way, so they were sort of baffled.) They rented a piano and put it in my room, and I practiced and composed almost compulsively, frequently going late into the night. A longtime avid reader, I also loved to write from a very early age and dreamed of being a novelist. (I still secretly fantasize about that sometimes.)
After a three-year pre-med program in high school (don't even ask), I was accepted to the School of Film & Television at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and spent the next two years in their Recording Arts program, bouncing from film set to film set, wrapped in cables and operating equipment more expensive than my car. Though it wasn't part of my program, I also worked on several sets as a gaffer (guy who does the lighting) because I had a good eye for it and hey, it was something else interesting to do. I still sort of miss the chaos of film sets (though not the hours.) Even after I decided the Recording Arts program wasn't going to be for me, I still kept up with the film world a little. For years, I studied acting at the Storyteller's Conservatory, and still keep in touch with that wonderful community even though I no longer live in L.A.
I ended up majoring in Music at LMU, with dual concentrations in Classical Piano Performance and Music Theory & Composition. I was up to my nose in work—classes, ensembles, performances, juries, at least two hours of practice a day—and I loved every minute of it. Always one to take on way too much at once, I took advantage of every extra opportunity music school offered—multiple choirs, percussion ensemble, gamelan ensemble, jazz ensemble, voice lessons, cello lessons (I was never not terrible at the cello, but it was fun!), a bit part in the opera, you name it. I also had the opportunity to take breathtaking leaps in my own performance practice and composition, and got the rare joy of hearing talented musicians perform my compositions.
I also ended up getting a two-year degree in computer programming, so I can also build a data-driven web application or explain how a linked list works, for all the good that does me. Like I said, a lot of interests. These days, teaching is my main gig, but I'm always finding interesting side projects to work on!
Although I do love composing, at a certain point I discovered that I absolutely hate the hustle of drumming up work that way, so these days I mainly compose for myself. When I do work on collaborative projects, I strive to make music that stays with you, music that someone could hear years later and immediately be flooded with memories of the media where they encountered it. I particularly like using leitmotifs, musical themes that transform and appear in different ways as the characters, places, or objects they represent change. If you listen to my album "Hemlock House" carefully, you'll hear a half a dozen major themes that show up in all kinds of unexpected ways.
As I've become more interested in game music, I've also started to create dynamic music that can follow players' actions without being limited to a single, hard-composed track. I use loopable sections and mix-and-match layers that can be programmed to change or move on only when the time is right. (I've used these to great effect in Dungeons & Dragons campaigns too; there's just something magical about feeling like the musical score is following what you do!)
I try to combine my classical background with ever-changing music technology to create scores that feel like modern classics; informed by tradition, but not old-fashioned; modern, but not trendy; not just background noise, but a unique character you couldn't get any other way.
If you have a project that you want to hire me for, please feel to contact me. I take back-end deals under the right circumstances, but I do not work in exchange for credit/exposure/VIP privileges, so please do not insult my work by offering them as compensation.
