About me
I was raised among farmers, teachers, artists, and laborers from rural Illinois. Though my work has taken me far from home the qualities that define my family continue to shape me as a leader, a scholar, a musician, and a man: dignity, decency, kindness, and wisdom.
I spent three years at a liberal arts college before leaving after my mother contracted cancer. Working as as car salesman, iron cutter, and steel handler, I struggled for years before finding my way back to an academic life. In the spring semester of 2010 I returned, completed the B.A., and found a place to belong. Leadership and teaching have always come naturally and in musicology I found a profession whose only limits are one’s ambition and imagination. Music research has provided me with a platform to work across disciplines, speak multiple languages, as well as lead choirs and work with singers. In 2011 Butler University offered me the chance to work with students and receive 1-1 training from some inspiring music researchers, conductors, composers, and theorists. I adapted so quickly that after two years of graduate study I won a Fulbright research grant to Austria.
Living and working in Vienna and Carinthia reshaped my personal and professional life in countless ways. My language skills, research abilities, and choral methods were put to the test every day. Despite these challenges I, as if in a crucible, emerged with newfound focus, a hardened resolve, and a broader and more polished skillset. After my then fiancée and I determined that remaining in Europe was not an option, I began doctoral study at Florida State University. For three years I taught music history courses, introductory courses on music and culture, directed an early music vocal ensemble, gave voice lessons, offered career and personal guidance, and guest lectured for several different courses. The faculty and students at FSU helped me realize how useful my perspective could be in not only research, but also teaching, leadership, and student guidance.
In late 2017 my wife and I moved to Easton in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley to be closer to family while I finish my dissertation and we start a family of our own. Never before have I lived in a place where past, present, and future seem so intimately intertwined. There is an ancient magic in its rolling hills and forests, an ambition in its present development, and a tangible sense of hope for the future that captivate me even as I write these words. I have dedicated myself to working in my new community through the College Hill Neighborhood Association, the City of Easton, and as a member of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Both my wife and I hope to be a force for good in our new communities, and we’ve already begun to act on that goal.
I bring a depth of perspective and experience rare to a professional in his early thirties. Whether in teaching, musicianship, leadership, scholarship, international programs, development, or philanthropy I can offer something special to your organization. Because, above all, I bring with me a heritage of dignity, decency, kindness, and wisdom—which is something the world needs right now.
