ABOUT

I am a musician, educator, and cultural entrepreneur with a mission to be the best human and musician I can. I believe that creativity is a birthright and that the world is made better through participation in music and the arts.

Trained in Western classical, jazz, and world traditions, my musical focus is only part of my larger vision as Founding Director of Common Tone Arts 501(c)3 and, most recently, as Director of the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston.

With a wide array of musical activities, I strive to move seamlessly between soloing as a trumpeter, performing with world-class orchestras, composing new music, creating with the TORCH Collective, and producing socially conscious, multi-arts events.

I am focused on using music and imagination as a universal language to bring people together and celebrate our shared humanity. Much of this vision is embedded in my work via Common Tone Arts, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to transforming lives through music and the arts.

As the Immediate-Past President of the College Music Society, I led an innovation think-tank summit to Reimagine Music Schools for 2026 and Beyond. My work is focused on advocating for better positioning of music in higher education in our communities and in our government.

Together, we don't just protect the music. We carry it forward.

MUSICIAN

I consider myself a versatile musician who performs, composes, and produces on the international stage. As a Yamaha Artist, I've commissioned and premiered many works as a trumpet soloist and advocate for new music. Recently, much of my artistic work has been as a founding member of TORCH, a composer and multi-arts collective. Originally trained as an improvising musician, I've spent most of my professional career performing in orchestras, chamber ensembles, early music ensembles on baroque trumpet, and new music groups.

As a soloist, I've brought original and fresh American music for trumpet to six continents. I'm passionate about the process of generating new art and am a devoted advocate for composers. I've commissioned and premiered more than fifty new works for the trumpet, many of which are recorded on my two albums for Origin Records, Universal Language and Eventide.

As an orchestral musician, I performed fifteen seasons as Principal Trumpet of Symphony Tacoma, including featured solo appearances with Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat and J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. I've performed hundreds of concerts with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Seattle Opera, and in 2007 I played a season with the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile.

As a recording musician, you can hear me with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Modern Orchestra, and on a wide range of recordings spanning big band and trad jazz, flamenco, and post-rock. I've also played on countless movie soundtracks, video games, commercials, and TV programs like Ghost Rider, Community, Call of Duty, and Crimson Skies.

As a composer, I draw equally from my love of progressive jazz, the 20th-century masters, and Americana. Most of my works are for the genre-bending ensemble TORCH, including major portions of Elements (2015) and Passages (2019). I also wrote The Obamatorio (2016) for soprano and Scrape Orchestra (strings, electric guitar, and harp), a four-movement song cycle based on the words of Barack Obama. I'm currently working on my first opera, American Phoenix, the story of a young Chinese-American girl caught between worlds.

EDUCATOR

My career in academia led me to a Doctorate in Musical Arts and to a Carnegie R1 tenured full professorship. I served as Director of the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston and as Head of Music at Seattle Pacific University.

A passionate advocate for the evolution of music education, I strive to create learning systems that support lifelong growth and creativity. I love helping musicians build the mindset and habits of deep practice that lead to mastery, collaborating with peers to solve problems, and designing our future together. I believe lasting change comes from intentionally building cultures of belonging, where people can flourish and feel safe to create. As an artist and activist, I've learned that nurturing other artists to discover their innate genius is the best way I know to raise up a new generation of champions, committed to making the world a better place through music.

I hold a degree in music education and performance from Rutgers University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Washington. After completing student teaching and graduating with my undergraduate degree, I pursued a performance career that ultimately led me back to teaching, into academia, and into arts leadership. I am a national accreditor for the National Association of Schools of Music and have worked with universities to train future music educators for the past twenty-fiive years.

“Intentional music and arts education for all people is perhaps the best way to create positive change for our future. This is an extremely exciting time to be creating!”

CULTURAL ENTREPRENEUR

What is a cultural entrepreneur? I’m not sure, but I don’t see another way to describe my work in arts leadership. To me, cultural entrepreneurship means building the platforms, partnerships, and communities that enable art to thrive. It has something to do with the audacity to believe we're more capable than we think, to build the future we envision, and to have the courage to act.

I am the Founder and Executive Director of Common Tone Arts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization dedicated to transforming lives through music and the arts. Common Tone Arts fulfills its mission through a variety of programs to incubate new works and support artists, including the Institute for Creativity, the Common Tone Music Festival, the TORCH Collective, and more. As a producer, I have created numerous events that bring artists and community together with new multi-art works that speak to our social consciousness. Since 2014, the TORCH Collective has framed these works for the Universal Language Project, a new music platform and cultural incubator.

As the President of the College Music Society (as well as Immediate Past-President and Vice President), I led national and regional leadership in conversations to redesign and modernize this organization for the future. Since joining the CMS Board in 2019, I have worked with the board and the membership stakeholders to help stabilize budget systems, reorganize our staff structures, engage and activate the board, lead a strategic planning process that reauthored our mission, values, and vision statements, and establish new initiatives in academic leadership, professional development, and advocacy, including the creation of a new international chapter to serve musicians and academics worldwide. Most significantly, I designed and hosted a national think-tank summit, Reimagining Music Schools for 2026 and Beyond, that brought together some of the biggest names and thought leaders in our field to collectively move our ideas into action for the future of music and education.

As a coach and consultant, I am privileged to serve others in an advisory capacity to numerous projects, universities, and organizations. Some of my favorite work is serving as a catalyst to help individual artists and academics level up their artistic and professional careers. I have discovered a unique knack for helping clients advance their careers in professional artistry.