Bio
As a Composer/Arranger
I am an awarded composer and arranger that began composing as a ten year old. I have studied under Keenan McKenzie for jazz composition and Julie Harris for classical composition. Most recently, I won the 2024 Dr. J. Douglas White Essentially Ellington Student Composition/Arranging Contest, resulting in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra recording and performing my composition in May of 2024 at the Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival. In 2023, I was a YoungArts Merit winner in Jazz Composition. I have participated in the MTNA composition competition three times receiving two state level honorable mentions and a state level first place finish. My big band charts have been performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra. In addition to big band writing, I also compose and arrange for small groups, particularly for my albums—most recently Carolina Christmas. After my work on Carolina Christmas I continued arranging small group swing charts for the same band, The Thursday Night Jazz Band.
As a Pianist
I have played piano since I was 9, playing both classical and jazz. I have participated in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Summer Jazz Academy at Bard College and Classical Tahoe's Brubeck Jazz Summit at the University of Nevada Reno at Lake Tahoe, as well as summer jazz workshops at the Eastman School of Music, the University of North Texas, Michigan State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I study with Ed Paolantonio, who I met at Chapel Hill. I have played in the Triangle Youth Jazz program for four years, including performing with the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble in New York at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival in 2022, 2023, and 2024. I have played with local professional big bands such as the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra and the Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra.