About Me

My career has been exceptionally diverse. I am not a specialist but I do not consider myself “Jack of all trades, master of none,” either. I am a professional musician. I have spent my entire life pushing my limits artistically and working to empower musicians of all ages and backgrounds.

 

I am primarily trained as an operatic baritone. My repertoire consists of more than 70 roles in opera, oratorio, and musical theater. My experience as a choral musician includes madrigals, vocal jazz, barbershop harmony, and contemporary a cappella. All in all, I’ve sung music dating back to the middle ages and been part of world premieres, and I’ve sung in 19 languages to date. As an instrumentalist I have played in orchestras, wind ensembles, marching bands, jazz bands, chamber consorts, and various combos on more than 40 instruments. I’ve played classical, jazz, rock, country, bluegrass, folk music, and musical theater.

 

I’m also a conductor. I’ve been the featured clinician at more than 100 festivals around the country. I’ve conducted community and church choirs, barbershop choruses, theater productions, marching bands, jazz bands, and symphonic bands. I’m currently serving as the Artistic Director for two different choral ensembles based in Durham, North Carolina: Heart of Carolina A Cappella, a multi-award winning barbershop harmony chorus and the Triangle Vocal Project, a 16-voice professional chamber choir whose mission is to make great music and raise money for music-based charities.

 

I am a staunch and fierce advocate for music education in particular but arts education in any form it can take. I have given lectures and led workshops in curriculum design, music education advocacy, vocal health, and performance practice techniques to students, established performers, and educators. I designed and implemented an entire collegiate music degree plan with options in music education, performance, and general music. I have maintained a private studio specializing in Voice but also teaching woodwinds, piano, guitar, and bass for more than 30 years to hundreds of students. I have helped musicians become professionals in the field and I have helped people struggling to find music for themselves become successful in their local church or community choirs; both are equally rewarding to me. My research in the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams has been published internationally.

 

I have hundreds of compositions and arrangements for choirs, soloists, stage works, bands, orchestras, and combos. I have been fortunate enough to have my music performed at Carnegie Hall and I have earned awards from the Kennedy Center for composition.

 

I earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice from the University of Texas at Austin; the Master of Music degree in Opera from California State University, Northridge; the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from California State University, San Bernardino; and an Associate of Arts degree in Music from Chaffey College.

 

I am part of an amazingly talented family of musicians. My wife, Nicole, is an accomplished choral singer in multiple genres and an exceptionally talented flautist. My son, Michael, is an amazing barbershop singer with an international collegiate medal and multiple district quartet championships. My daughter, Kathryn, is a gifted singer, song-writer, and plays the guitar, ukulele, and piano, and is active in collegiate chamber choirs.

 

We’ve been based in North Carolina since 2001 and have called Durham our home since 2005.