I was born on March 5, 1985 and have lived in the Florida Keys until 2005. My music career started in middle school with the small and limited music program that we had. I wanted to play the saxophone and was put on the clarinet as a starter instrument because they have similar fingerings and was easier to learn on. From there my music prowess didn’t increase much until I picked up the guitar in high school. I self taught myself and practiced hours each day, annoying my family with my terrible rhythm. Eventually (because this is what practice does) I got better. And as many teenagers I was in a few bands and actually did several recordings and put on several shows.
Time for college came. I had minimal experience, at best, with classical music. However, something inside me drove me. I did my 2 years at the local community college to get my AA and set my sites on what I wanted to do next. I knew it was something in music but I didn’t know what exactly.
One day it just clicked. I wanted to compose music; especially classical music. So I had found the few schools in Florida who had Music Composition programs. I called around to talk to the professors and got laughed at a few times saying “guitar is not a real instrument”. And yes that is really what a professor at a real, well known, well respected state college told me.
I then found Florida Southern College. Which, despite their odd requirements and tuition, is a great school. They had music composition and classical guitar! I was thrilled. I applied immediately and got accepted. And as it turned out a high school buddy of mine was also going to FSC and was one of the 3 other Music Composition Majors.
For the first 2 years our composition professor was Composer Bill Brusick. He was also from the Florida Keys and actually had lived in the city I worked (I don’t get it either. Some how us Keys Folk get around). He was very supportive and very positive.
My first composition ever I entitled “Through the Eyes of the Mind”. And it was terrible. Absolutely the worst piece of crap to ever grace the Classical Music Community. Most likely this piece will never see the light of day again for it it not worth the paper it was printed on. However, Brusick supported me and it was a large stepping stone for me; going form absolutely no experience to a really bad piece… but I have to admit that my ambitions were high. It was arranged for a marching band rather than starting off with 1 or 2 instruments. My pieces later developed mostly through theory projects and old songs I had written for the guitar in previous years.
My first big breakthrough was “If Heaven Were to Know”. It was originally written as a short theory exercise for 4 choir voices. Later I took that piece, revised it for the Piano and built on to the foundation of it. While doing this I had developed a theatrical idea: The piece I had written was just the first movement and each additional movement would add another instrument. Upon completion I ended up with four movements and a prelude that tied it together.
After its debut at the Weekly Student Recital, I was approached by fellow students and asked to write them a piece to perform. So far I have yet to complete all but two of those requests. The first being Brandon Bair with “At the Bottom of it All”, a Bassoon and Piano piece. The second being Matthew Habib with “Triove: I. Siam Mais”, a tenor voice and piano piece.
Find much more information about my Music Compositions including Composition Videos, stories behind my works, and recordings.
