I am a jazz trumpet player specializing in New Orleans style jazz. Inspired by the music of Louis Armstrong, I spent 7 years working as a freelance jazz musician and teacher in New Orleans. I was fortunate to lead a New Orleans-style band at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and was given this opportunity to put together a band upon my move back to New York. In addition to teaching, I hope to continue performing as it not only brings me immense joy, it also heavily influences my teaching practices.
This is a video of me performing with Joe Simon's Jazz trio at Muriel's Restaurant for their Sunday jazz brunch. I included this video because it is a reflection of the types of performances I played most often during my time in New Orleans. It also demonstrates my ability to not only play the trumpet, but also improvise and sing. I feel that my background in jazz affords me the ability to think quickly on my feet, be creative, and utilize many different methods of musical expression to connect with my students.
During Covid-19, I struggled with not being able to play music with people in person. Playing music is so important to me, and it was very difficult to not be able to share that connection with other musicians. Fortunately, the pandemic allowed me to collaborate with other musicians, sometimes in other cities! I still have not met these two Florida-based musicians in person, but we have shared friends and decided to collaborate virtually. Here is one of the virtual collaborations were able to produce. I'm proud of the fact that we were able to think creatively about ways in which we could make music together, despite the limitations of the pandemic. As a teacher, I also want my students to think outside of the box in terms of the ways that they can make music with other people.
While Covid-19 was very difficult as I was unable to play music with other musicians in person, it forced me to learn many new skills. One of these new skills was learning to edit videos. I not only participated in this collaboration but I also organized the musicians and edited the video. Video editing is a skill that I can bring in my teaching as well, whether it's editing a collaboration amongst students, creating an asynchronous lesson, or creating content. I believe that this skill will serve me well throughout my career as a music educator.