My Story
Youth
I am the product of the supportive and caring teachers within the public school system.
I played in my middle school band because my older sister did, and the band was known to be good. I picked the trumpet because it only had three buttons. My laziness was inspired but misdirected. The joke was on 11 yr-old me, because the three buttons didn’t mean less complexity, just fewer fingering options.
My single mother scrounged up the money to rent a trumpet from the local music store, but lessons weren’t in our tight budget. In the first of what would become many instances of community generosity, my neighbor Joel Dunphy stepped up to help. He was a teacher at the elementary school I attended and one of the more gentle, caring men I’ve known. He was a trumpet major in college and appeared to be happy to have a reason to pick up the instrument again. He donated weekly lessons on Wednesday nights for almost three years. We would even go Christmas caroling with neighbors each year, playing a book of holiday duets around the block with our singing families. This was exactly as cute as it sounds.
Joel Dunphy was an elementary school teacher who gave me weekly trumpet lessons for almost three years.
Dr. Joyce Davis is nothing less than the driving force behind my musical life. Pictured here from 1998 after playing the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto with the Alachua County Youth Orchestra for the David Hubbell Concerto Competition. She shepherded me through my youth into The Juilliard School.
He eventually handed me off to the next source of humbling generosity, Dr. Joyce Davis. Dr. D was the trumpet professor at the University of Florida and shaped me from a wayward boy into a Juilliard-bound young man. She brought me through the standard trumpet repertoire pushing me to reach beyond what I thought I could. When she accepted payment (which was not often), the amount never mattered. She knew I needed help and that she could help me. I can’t express in words how grateful I am to her.
During high school, I played my first professional work as a Toy Soldier at Walt Disney World. In retrospect, the hourly wage was dismal, but it paid way more than my job at Burger King without making me smell like grease all week. I don’t have a video of me playing this gig, but here’s a great video of a Toy Soldier eating it during a parade (the money from this job afforded me my very own Bach C trumpet, which stuck with me for the next decade):
College
Conservatories are not right for everyone. They’re not designed to be. Juilliard was an amazing place for many of my peers who no longer struggled with the mechanics of playing and performing music. I struggled.
My four years there were characterized by imposter syndrome. I don’t know how I fooled anybody into thinking I belonged there, but I never believed I fit.
I enjoyed the friends and the experience of being in New York for my college years, but musically, I always felt I was on a different path than many of my peers. Phil Smith was my teacher for all four years, and I’m sure he felt the same about me.
It was during these years that I began teaching. Through small fellowships at the Educational Outreach office at Juilliard, some of my most meaningful memories of undergrad were my visits to public schools around New York where I taught trumpet, brass, and band. This early teaching figured heavily in what came after Juilliard.
My first experience as a band director was in 1999! As part of what was called the Instrumental Music Program, a group of students at The Juilliard School gave twice-weekly classes at Public School 166 in New York. These incredible students lit a teaching fire in me.
Power pose before a show (we weren’t playing Kryl, so Brian McWhorter was probably nervous). Professor McWhorter (Trumpet Professor at the University of Oregon) has always been and remains a mentor and an inspiration. Also, 100% of the people in this picture have pharyngoceles. The American Sinfonietta, Germany, 2001
I injured myself during my senior year. A physiological weakness paired with inefficient and forceful technique led to a pharyngocele: a herniation of the tissue around the pharynx. While blowing the trumpet, the bubbling out of my throat hit some nerves which caused immediate shooting pain and a lasting dull ache. Surgery was possible but came with significant risks, the most severe of which was the possibility of requiring a feeding tube for the rest of my life. The trumpet was not worth it, so I stopped playing.
I didn’t have the patience or the interest in starting a completely new career path, so I capitalized on my playing experience and started a Master’s degree in music education at Teachers College at Columbia University. Dr. Randall Allsup was in his first year at TC when I arrived and being in his orbit was formative.
Professional Life
Over the next few years, I gradually picked up the trumpet again. Without surgery, I needed to learn how to play with less effort. Lurching through the process of relearning the horn wasn’t fun, but it was necessary and ultimately helpful for my teaching. At 24, I was able to experience the learning process through every step of development, from beginner to professional. I found lots of failure and lots of humility taking work in New York when I couldn’t reliably make good sounds on the horn. I know how hard it is to make sounds you don’t love or like.
I kept hustling in the city for another decade, building a varied and usually fulfilling career around playing, teaching, and administration. Over time though, I got tired and wanted to try something stable. So I took an audition.
I was in the Air Force Band for 5 years. It was a strange fit for me but ended up being a really rewarding job that changed the course of my life. I had some memorable experiences with some lovely humans that I still miss years later.
This is the group of musicians who showed me what time really is. I was lucky enough to get to play with The Airmen of Note a fair amount while in the Air Force Band, and each time was a masterclass in playing on and around the beat (in addition to the fire that Brian Macdonald and Kevin Burns always bring!).
Proudly standing in front of my first research poster at the 2020 TMEA Convention, San Antonio, TX! Titled “Patterns of musicians’ gaze reveal differences in the perceptual organization of different melodies,” Dr. Bob Duke, Professor of Music and Human Learning at Butler School of Music, and I used eye-tracking technology to measure how musicians of differing expertise look at music differently. I wanted to title it “Do you C what I C?”
That brought me to The University of Texas at Austin - Butler School of Music, where I wanted to learn more about learning. I’m finishing up my Ph.D. working with Dr. Bob Duke, Dr. Judith Jellison, Dr. Laurie Scott, and Dr. Amy Simmons in the Music and Human Learning Department. Going back to school at 38 was a trip but learning from these incredible humans with my inspiring Ph.D. peers has seen some of my happiest times.
In the summer of 2023, I completed my PhD. With help from some of the greatest trumpet players alive (Chris Coletti, Amy McCabe, Gareth Flowers, Justin Emerich, Louis Hanzlik, and Billy Hunter), my dissertation suggests the central strategy of all effective music practice.
“These are six incredible people whose practice was central to my research. In many ways, my dissertation is a 250-page love story to the efficacy, efficiency, and elegance of their practice. I will be forever grateful to each of these folks.”
In the fall of 2023, I started working at The University of Texas at Austin - Butler School of Music as the coordinator for the Center for Music Learning's new Musical Lives Initiative. With so much learning, research, teaching, and advocacy ahead, things are looking very, very up.