born in 1994 in Pontiac, Michigan, United States of America
lives and works in Muskegon, Michigan

composer, performer, improviser, student, and teacher of classical and world music. album no mind is available on bandcamp and features cello pieces written by friends/composers; orchestra director at Muskegon Public Schools, adjunct professor of cello, world music, and introduction to the arts at Lake Michigan College, assistant principal cellist of Holland Symphony, and also plays with West Michigan Symphony and other regional orchestras; wrote “The Influence of Vietnamese Traditional Music on the Cello Works of P. Q. Phan, Vân-Ánh Võ, and Nhật Minh Nguyễn” available on Proquest.

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above is a traditional bio. it's really a surface level representation of my existence here on this earth. many artists present surface level biographies because it is what social propriety demands. in other words, if you show to much of your "true self" i.e. your private/unfiltered thoughts can be and in certain cases will be seen as unprofessional. i will do my best to give you reader, because you are here on my website and clearly found yourself with nothing better to do than read about my life and thoughts, so here goes.

the entire reason i built this website was to gain back some of my "self" as well as my autonomy outside of the social media algorithm that seems to have ensconced our american way of life from the children that i teach to the adults whose essays I grade at the college level. i personally have found myself disenchanted with the way that social media (sm for short) has woven itself into the fabric of our existence--perhaps the most telling evidence is anecodtal: I asked my 6th graders what they do with their free time and they said watch TikTok videos, some claiming they did that for as much as 6 hours a day!

clearly there is some type of force at play that is allowing both child and adult mind a like to succumb to this primordial desire for dopamine release via technology use. perhaps Alan Ginsberg poeticized it as best as possible with his reference to "Moloch" as the incentive structure around what we view as inhumane actions i.e. war, famine, destruction, political corruption etc.

i won't have enough space here in my bio section to go into my full thoughts about the current state of the world but you can read that over in the publications section if you so desire. what i would really like to impart here to you reader of this bio is a bit more succinct.

i guess i am pretty much a taoist: they supposedly have three treasures i.e. compassion, humility, and simplicity. these words have been echoing in my brain since i have heard them and they seem to continuously return in the context of my self and those around me. compassion toward one's self and those around you; humility within one's self and toward those around you; simplicity in one's self and with those around you. these words and their attached ideas are easy to state and sound almost common sensical but as one interfaces with life, it seems that our interactions are always forcing us to stay in or out of these states of mind.

one of my 8th grade students asked me the other day why i became an orchestra teacher: at the moment i believe i said that i was a bit obsessed with music and it allowed me to surround myself with it everyday. that's not too far from the truth though there may be a bit more to it than that. it's really a philosophical choice i have made, choosing what i believe to be a "good use of my time" rather than something that will likely pay me a lot more i.e. medicine, engineering, technology etc. In reality, i never found myself compelled enough to do these things at a high enough level where people would be willing to pay me for it--music seems to eternally return for me at an obsessive level. it's almost like a curse, where even if i wanted to do something else, my mind keeps pushing me toward music for better or for worse. it's also my way of remaining attached to the three treasures of the tao in a sense: my job demands compassion toward young people, patience with their developing senses of self and their families; forces me to remember that even though I "know" a lot I also "don't know" a lot more than I know; what could be simpler than teaching kid's music everyday?

now this is not to say that i do not have other skills or interests. i know that i am good at reading, writing, typing, studying, research but i have a doctorate in cello performance and a cognate in orchestral conducting. it's not from a very fancy school like Julliard or Curtis or Yale but it's mine and i believe my current job is a sign of sorts that i have to pay back what i have been given by existence.

i remember the first time i felt like i wanted to be a "professional musician" even though i think what i thought that meant at the time was writing your own music and performing it at shows around the country--the tour life. turns out it seems most bands are not making much money by touring, spotify is eating up record sales, tiktok algorithms are trending for months before the next best thing hits and it seems the collective attention span of most popular music is pretty surface level. at the same time, I'll say artists like kendrick lamar have managed to crack the code in the sense that they have released incredibly boundary pushing music as well as "pop" music that's being played in the school classrooms and the superbowl.

then i think about artists like david tipper, george lewis, ryoji ikeda, frank zappa, SOPHIE--the list goes on. it makes me realize that it's not about how popular you are, or how much money you make, or how viral your music becomes: it's about leaving behind an impression of your self after you leave this world. that's the only thing that matters to anyone you love. i know that my words, music, and actions are the relics of my self for those who remember me. make sure you make your own relics and cherish those that are given to you.