I was born in San Ramon, California (Northern) on September 15th, 1988. When I was only six years old my family & I moved to Southern California. It was here in my hometown Upland that I began playing music at ten years old. For Christmas one year, my parents bought me an antique student trumpet. I started playing in the school sixth-grade band the next year. The first time I opened the case it was upside down and the mouthpiece & trumpet spilled all over the ground. I didn’t know how to play at all, and the band threatened to kick me out if I didn’t learn my scales by the next week. That day I ran over to the music store and purchased all of the learning books. I dove into the books, and practiced for hours. It was a turning point in my life, and I made unbelievable progress. The very next day, I made it into the elementary honor band.
Throughout Junior High I started making it into orchestras & honor bands across Southern California. I was incredibly focused and went on to win several statewide competitions & scholarships. My private trumpet teacher David Evans, and my Junior High band director Jill Geist were among the most influential people I’ve ever met and I owe much of my progress to them. Eventually I was getting first chair trumpet positions for almost anything I auditioned for.
Early on in High School I started studying with Bob Karon in Los Angeles. I also joined Bugles Across America an organization dedicated to performing live taps for fallen veterans. I am still a member to this day, and occasionally I am called to donate my services as a bugler. I also went on to win several more competitions including the National Trumpet Competition (NTC) in Fairfax, Virginia, where I placed 2nd in my division. And I also won some important scholarships including the Young Musicians Foundation (YMF) scholarship in the amount of $10,000 which went towards helping to pay for my schooling and career.
In 2006 after graduating from High School, I entered as a music performance major at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts). There I studied with Edward Carroll on trumpet. For two years I studied with some of the best teachers I have ever met, and improved greatly as a musician, improviser, and trumpet player. In 2009 I decided I needed to study composition as well, and entered the Performer-Composer program which is effectively a double major in both performance and composition. For the next two years I became heavily involved in my studies, composition, & performance. I also won the assistant principal trumpet position with the Young Musicians Foundation (YMF) Debut Orchestra. I also learned through related coursework advanced music theory, music forms, transcription, arranging, orchestrating, conducting, and sound synthesis.
I became very involved with the electronic music world and in early September 2010 I began working tirelessly on my graduation recital which I titled “Perspectives” scheduled to be performed on the 4th of April, 2011. I decided to make it unconventional by turning it into a full-scale production of continuous music featuring media projections. The production featured a brass choir, a string ensemble, improvisatory music with harp, trumpet and electronics. The rest of the concert almost two hours in length featured electro-acoustic music, and a DJ set of my electronic dance music. The concert was a success and is viewable on the Listen page of this website or on the Cal Arts Concert Archive. I graduated in May 2011 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in both Music Composition & Music Performance (Trumpet) from the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts).
The electronic dance music presented in my Graduation Recital was the inspiration to create an entire album. The task was daunting, but I knew it was the right direction to move towards, because it flowed like nothing ever before. For months and months I meticulously crafted new sounds, sequenced, produced, tweaked, mixed and finally mastered my album. I am very proud of it, if only for the hard work I have put into it every day all day for the past few months.
At the current time I am very busy promoting the new album entitled "Power Trip." It has taken months, seemingly years in the making, and its finally out to express to the world.
You can view other works by me and stay in contact by visiting my website www.mphmusic.net... stay in touch also by liking (and commenting if you wish) on my facebook page: www.facebook/mphsound
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