Personal History
Music has been a part of my home ever since I was born, but not necessarily as a serious topic of study. Both of my parents are formally trained: My mother is a fine mezzo-soprano and my father a tenor and guitarist. Being a pastor’s family, music naturally was a part of our lives, and my parents performed for our congregation on a regular basis. Because of this, I had been interested in music from a very young age. My earliest musical memories are of me sitting at the piano in the music room of our parsonage, making up short melodies using three notes at a time (white keys only) while asking my parents what they thought of them.
After attempting piano and disliking it in grade school, I started playing the clarinet in sixth grade. The drum set then demanded my interest in seventh grade, and saxophone in eighth grade. During these middle school years I played in as many settings as my band director would allow including symphonic band, jazz band, and wind ensemble. But I never practiced enough to be the best, but only enough to be the second best. I believe this was due to my slowly emerging passion for composition seeing as I was spending more time in thought about how sound worked so that I could reproduce the sounds that were in my head giving other people the ability hear them.
As I began high school, I became frustrated with being put on the instrument that the band needed rather than alto saxophone. Little did I know that playing with a different section of the band every year would help me more than anything else I did in high school: During my freshman year it occurred to me that music notation software probably existed, and I picked up a copy of Print Music! 2001 at the local music store. Less and less of my time was spent playing video games, practicing, and studying, and I would spend hours at a time in front of the computer writing music with my soon to be outdated software, writing small chamber works for my friends and I to play. We ended up performing three of my compositions for solo/ensemble competitions, and then my senior year my band director even had my group play during a band concert. These extremely encouraging events led me to pursue composition as a career since I knew that there was nothing else that I really wanted to do (There was and still is a passion for rock drumming, but that dream was stifled. Although, now it is being incorporated into my latest projects).
Philosophy of Learning
The universe has infinite immensity, the center of which is everywhere and the circumference of which is nowhere. Likewise, it has infinite complexity: No matter how deep one ventures into the atom the simplest subatomic component will never be found. Whether it be science, mathematics, theology, philosophy, or psychology each subject has infinite depth and the potential cannot be exhausted. Conversely there are infinite subjects to dig into, therefore there are an infinite number of subjects that are yet to be discovered.
It is because of these opposite, complimentary and irrefutable theories (theories because we will never be able to prove either of these because of the nature of infinity) that I can truly think of myself at the exact same level as the rest of mankind no matter the subject. The subject that I have chosen to specialize in is music and I am quickly discovering that the deeper I venture into the subject the more things I can see that I can learn. Because of the infinite depth of the subject, for me to think of myself as greater than my peers is utter foolishness since I am just as far away from infinity as they are. Because of the nature of infinity me, my peers, and even my instructors are contextually at the exact same point of development in the subject. In front of us is an infinite expanse of potential that we can never come any closer to fulfilling than we already are.
Conversely, behind my peers and I is an intellectual universe of infinite immensity with a numberless amount of subjects that a finite number of people are studying. We are suspended between two infinities on either side of us, and we are all therefore at the exact same point of development. No matter how accomplished we are we have just as much to explore as the rest of mankind. It is because of this that pride is inane.
So why bother learning if it doesn’t accomplish anything? Because that’s what we were put in between these two infinities to do and I love every minute of it. Study is an end of itself.
Theology
I am a devoted follower of Christ and plan to make this clear in my work as it is the cornerstone of everything that I do. I believe that there is good, and that there is evil in the world; a problem and a solution. I choose every day to do my best at being a part of the solution. Of course I fail daily, but I also believe that one must not draw lines when it comes to such matters, but rather go directions. I aim for perfection knowing that only through Christ will I hit my mark.
My goal in life is not to write music, but to be a servant of my Lord Jesus Christ and to develop His creation with the gifts that he has given me. To live for any less is to not live at all.
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