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SFSU - Honors - Winner of 2016 Concerto Competion SFSU - Merit Full Scholarship + Stipend 2015-2018 SFCM - Merit Full Scholarship 2008-2012 SOJAZZ - Most improved in class of 2007
I began playing electric bass at 14 and started a band at 15. We won 1st place in NMHS Battle of the Bands and at 16 we recorded out first album and had our first performance on the radio. By 17 with busier schedules and our drummer leaving the band fell apart and I began looking into ways of doing things solo. I invested into a loop station and got into Jazz and Classical music. I recorded my first solo album titled “Just a Bass” and won NMHS Battle of the Bands again my senior year. For my senior project I composed, rehearsed and performed my first Concerto for Cello and Orchestra and went on to study Double Bass performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where I received my B.M. I have played in many master classes with some of the worlds greatest musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Victor Wooten, Emanuel Ax and others.
I have worked with students aging from 6 with no training to 55 with 30 years of training. Every student is different and presents unique challenges. I find that the less a student know the easier it is to see improvement. Often with older players there are fundamental basics that are working against them that need correction. You can not unlearn something, only learn something knew. The most important thing in music education is starting them right because muscle memory is extremly hard to change.
Throughout the 8 12 years that I have been teaching I have been learning a lot about many different methods and teaching styles. I always had thought that what I was being taught could have been taught in a more natural and more efficient way. I have borrowed many of my ideas from some of the greatest teachers in history and believe the most in the “bel canto” method created but David Jacobsen who is an alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music, the greatest school of music in the world. It approaches technique and music as a 3 in 1 system in which each part is of equal importance. It is an absolutley amazing method and philiosophy and have seen immediate improvement in not just my own playing but all of my students.
Teaching is a huge responsibilty that I do not take light heartedly. If we as teachers do a suburd job, it will have a huge effect on a students over all life. Musical education teaches us about the mind and body and balance between the two. It teaches us logic, problem solving, and creative thinking in balance with eachother. It teaches us posture, breath, how to think. It teaches us to listen, and to communicate, to engage with others, it teaches us work ethic and how to colloborate with anyone. It is the worlds only universal language, it does not judge, it does not hate and it sees no difference between you and me.