I grew up in a small coal-mining town in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia called Sparwood. My grandfather is an amateur guitarist, and my mother can often be heard singing something, so there was always music in the house and I suppose you could say that’s where my love for the art form began.

When I was a teenager I got absolutely hooked on classical music. It started innocently enough with Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, and Liszt, but before I knew it I was listening to Ligeti, Palestrina, Xenakis, Sorabji B-sides … you name it. With my family’s help I managed to secure as much education about classical music as one could get in the East Kootenays in the early 2000s.

Teachers and mentors are such an important part of an artist’s life, and I’d like to mention some of them here. My first teachers were Douglas Lyon (in Jaffray BC), Arne Sahlen (in Kimberley BC), and Allen Reiser (in Calgary, AB). I studied in and out of academia for a long time, including at the University of Lethbridge (B.Mus with Deanna Oye for piano and Arlan Schultz for composition, as well as mentorship and friendship I will appreciate forever with Bente Hansen and Brian Black), Brandon University (M.Mus with Megumi Masaki for piano and Patrick Carrabré for composition), the Université de Montréal (D.Mus in piano performance with Paul Stewart), and I have also had the wonderful opportunity to attend classes with Hardy Rittner at the Banff Centre, Norma Fisher in London, England, and Edith Fischer in Blonay, Switzerland.

In the autumn of 2020 I developed a neuromuscular condition called focal dystonia (for more detailed information on this I plan to update the Writings page periodically), which rendered the middle finger of my right hand completely uncontrollable and brought my ability to concertize with virtuoso works to a halt. While working through various recovery methods (with big thanks to Jarred Dunn, Bob Durso, Edith Sisak at NeuroMontréal, Ruth Chiles, David Ciucevich, Emiliano Andres, and Vimalasara Mason-John for their continuing help with my ongoing recovery process), I decided to try to improve as a composer and grow a career oriented more towards writing music. To that end, I am currently pursuing studies at McGill University (D.Mus in Music in music composition with Philippe Leroux), and have been grateful to be included in special mentorship projects with Ana Sokolovic (thanks to the Opéra de Montréal) and Jocelyn Morlock (thanks to the Canadian Art Song Project).

I now live in Montréal where I write music, perform concerts and recitals in the city and around Canada, teach some wonderful young people the art of making music, and hang out with my awesome friends and my dog, Aida.