I was born in 1984 and grew up in New York. At the age of ten, I was introduced to composition through an elementary school program run by Daniel Deutsch, a nationally recognized leader in pre-college composition education. My activities as a performer began with studies in violin and viola, and in high school I cast a wide net, playing in several orchestras, chamber groups, and jazz combos throughout New York City. From 2002-2006, I attended the University of Michigan, where my teachers included William Bolcom and Betsy Jolas for composition, Yizhak Schotten for viola, and Andrew Mead for theory. At Michigan, I developed several enduring relationships with other musicians, including composers Eliza Brown and Shawn Jaeger, ‘cellist Chris Wild, and violinist J. Austin Wulliman.
Although my early education was rooted in the European/American classical tradition, I have always been interested in jazz, hip-hop, and the blues and those interests inevitably find a way into my various musical endeavors. Other interests include the dynamic between innovation and orthodoxy, composition and improvisation, experimentalism and craft, and the tension between the specific demands of material and the generalizing impulse of abstract systems.
As a performer, I have enjoyed toeing the line between classical and popular traditions. Some important collaborations include work with members of Tin Hat, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, The Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles, and Paper Mice. In 2008, I played viola in Carla Kihlstedt’s monumental song cycle, Necessary Monsters at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
In the fall 2010, I started a graduate degree at Northwestern University, where I have worked with Lee Hyla, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim.