My first recital, and probably first public performance

My mother dragged me to my first piano lesson when I was eight years old, and I have been playing and writing music ever since. I went through school band programs, recitals, and playing for church. While at college, my roommate taught me how to play guitar, as I look back that is basically all he and I did, either in our room or out performing somewhere. From there I played, had brushes with fame, owned a small studio, and then basically gave up on "doing music" as I moved into other things, like going to seminary and being an art director at Paramount. Somehow I became a college art professor, and some of my students challenged me to get back to my passion, music. The past 4-5 years I have been re-finding that!

The melodies I hear are often a rhythmic translation of my sense of searching and never finding. This struggle has impassioned me on a number of levels, and has inspired me towards examining the role creativity plays in our redemptive inwardness, something which first came to me while I was attending seminary.

I make and teach art, and it shares these same influences, although I find making something visual is much more of a meditative experience. In both of them I employ aspects of ambiguity and randomness, and believe that someone else's own interpretation of what I make is as much of the creative act as the making. You might call this 'unselfish intentionality' - there is meaning for me, but I can also let that go so that you may find your own meanings.

My music usually employs uncluttered, interwoven parts and uncomplicated melodies, tied into my classical-inspired piano, and folk-influenced guitar. Hopefully, the poetic lyrics may speak to you in some personal way.