My Music Background

​Both music and writing are in my blood. There are a lot of musicians  in my family, so I was exposed to many different styles growing up. My grandfather was the person who influenced me the most even though he died when I was 4 months old. He played tenor sax and clarinet with a jazz band in the 1930s. It was his clarinet that I started on. He worked as a high school teacher, was an editor for the Omaha newspaper, and wrote radio plays. 

My first music lessons were on the piano when I was 6 or 7 years old. Clarinet lessons came shortly after. One of my favorite stories my mom has told me was when I was baby, I would try to "conduct" the church choir whenever they sang. I was involved with the children's church choir, school choirs all the way through college and now into the community. When I first started college I began as a music education major. I studied vocal pedagogy with Stephen Bobst and clarinet with Dr. David Breckbill. I was part of the Doane College band under the direction of Dr. Jay Gilbert and the choir under the direction of Larry Monson. When I transferred to Southwest Minnesota State University I continued to sing with the choir there under the direction of Dr. M. Michael Suzuki. In one of SMSU's trips we had the opportunity to sing at the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University. It was one of my more memorable college choir trips!

I played the clarinet with the St. Anthony Civic Orchestra from 2004-2019. I sang with Calliope Women’s Chorus from 2004-2011 and then with One Voice Mixed Chorus from 2011 to the present day. I was involved with the St. Anthony Community Theatre for a few years. I was one of the villagers in Fiddler on the Roof, played clarinet in The Sound of Music and played bass clarinet and clarinet in The Wizard of Oz.  

 

I made all kinds of attempts at writing music from a young age and all the way into my early college years. Each attempt would get a little better as I learned more about music theory. Some of the gaps in my music theory knowledge are being filled in by Dr. Raphael Fusco who has been giving me composition and music theory lessons since the fall of 2024. He has been a huge help!

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I got back into writing music on a regular basis in 2020 when the pandemic started. The songs I worked on were about each of the nine enneagram points for a workshop I co-facilitated with Roland Legge. As I was writing and recordings those songs, I felt my heart lighten up and I knew that I needed to make more time for creating through music and the arts. After the workshop I composed a lament for solo clarinet, two songs for solo voice, arranged the solo voice compositions for SATB choir, finished a commission for a friend's wedding featuring 2 voices and 4 instruments (piano, cello, clarinet, and claves), set one of my poems to SATB choir and violin and cello, set two of Andrew Burton's poems to SATB choir with more to come, and a number of instrumental pieces some of which are part of a collection that I've titled "Family Dynamics Collection". I've been submitting compositions to competitions and I won my first competition in 2024. The Soli Chamber Ensemble will be premiering my piece "Generations" which is a tone poem for clarinet, violin, and cello in early October of 2025. The 9 enneagram songs were premiered by Theresa Takacs and Dimiter Terziev at the Kamloops Music Festival in Kamloops, British Columbia April of 2022. Some of these songs are now available for purchase at my store here and at JWPepper. Check out my full list of songs, commissions, and works-in-progress here!

 

I am currently collaborating with CBC award-winning poet Andrew Burton, Canadian author and founder of The Awakened Company Catherine Bell, Wyandot of Anderdon nation, and Turkish neuroscientist and poet Özgü Işık Hafızoğlu.

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There are a few different projects and albums I'm in the process of creating.

These works-in-progress are:

Family Dynamics Collection

"Laughing at the Devil" (an oratorio following the stories of people living with hidden diseases)

Mantra Dance

Hide and Go Seek/Olly Olly Oxen Free

Whispering Thunder​

Storm Chaser (for orchestra and narrator)

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Report a Performance

 Did your musical group perform one of my pieces? Tell me about the performances and not only will you get the boost of promoting your event on my website and social media, but I will also get royalties from ASCAP for my compositions.

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What Inspires Me

For some of my earlier compositions (the ones I wrote as a teenager) my inspiration came from my family, nature, other composers, cultures from around the world and their languages, history, and literature of various genres. As I’ve gotten older, I still get inspired by the same things but I’m digging deeper and broadening my perspectives. I’ve become more involved in social justice issues and am using music as a form of activism. One of my current projects is about the Tulsa Race Riot Massacre of 1921 that I‘ve entitled “Greenwood Rising” for SATB chorus and band. This particular project is the start of a larger collection about revealing hidden histories. My own healing journey is another form of inspiration. More specifically the tools involved with my healing: the enneagram and the bodywork I’ve received (myofascial release therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture) to help manage chronic pain. I have a wide variety of musical interests ranging from classical, choral, jazz, bluegrass, folk music from around the world, big band, reggae, etc. You might hear some of those influences in my music.