Welcome! I am a concert pianist, composer, and teacher based in Portland, Oregon. I teach piano lessons, composition lessons, and offer coaching in advanced music skills and projects.

I teach students in a few main categories: ambitious students who want to audition for conservatories and make a career in music, adult students who play at an advanced level but are not professionals, and students of any ability level ages 10-adult who are passionate about the piano, composing, and music in general.

In addition, I coach professional musicians and music teachers in their projects or in advanced musical skills.

Playing the piano and composing have been my passions since I was a young child. I obsessed over learning how to play the piano better, learning about the lives of the famous composers, listening to as many piano albums as I could lay my hands on, learning ever more difficult and beautiful pieces, and performing at the top of my game every chance I could get. When I turned 10, I began improvising and writing down my creations, and since then, composing has been just as important to me as the piano.

Music has been the center of my life. As both a pianist and a composer, I have unique insights into music as an art form that lets me teach in a way that cuts through the mythology of classical music to get to the vital core of what makes a great musician. I see composers as real people, knowing how they make decisions when they composer. As a pianist, I also understand how the music composers compose will never live without the musicians who perform it.

Teaching music is a deeply meaningful activity for me. I love helping other musicians and students to learn and grow as creative artists in music. I see myself as a conduit for music, musicianship, and music history, helping in transmitting the traditions and knowledge of music from the past to students in the present. I have been teaching piano, composition, improvisation, and music theory/aural skills for decades.

I have lived in Portland, Oregon since 2017. In that time, I have built a thriving teaching studio of piano, composition, theory, and conducting students. I produce my own solo recitals featuring innovative programs that recontextualize music to spur new meaning making. In addition, I have performed frequently with the Oregon Symphony, Fear No Music’s Young Composers Project, and many other local musical groups. I am also the principal accompanist for the Portland Symphonic Choir.

I attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, double majoring in Piano and Composition as well as minoring in Music Theory and Music History. Later, I earned two doctorates in music from UC San Diego: a DMA (Doctorate of Musical Arts) in Piano and a PhD in Composition.

Besides playing the piano and composing, I love to hike, read Modern and Post-modern novels and poetry, cook ambitious meals from local food, go wine tasting, and spend time with my wife and my friends.