I have been playing trumpet in the West Michigan area for the past twenty years. From classical and baroque to musical theater and jazz, I enjoying making music with the trumpet whenever and wherever I can!
I first began performing professionally when I was hired to play for a wedding in high school. Advice from wise teachers and parents led me to pursue a dual career as a scientist and so my days are spent in the field of human genetics and evenings and weekends are spent practicing and performing as much and as many different kinds of music pursuits as I can.
Musical Theater has been one of my favorite areas to perform in, largely because it can span so many genres. I have appeared in many West Michigan musical theater productions at local high schools, Circle Theatre, and Grand Rapids Civic Theater including Legally Blonde, Sister Act, My Fair Lady, Company, Catch Me If You Can, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Bye Bye Birdie, Seussical, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Something Rotten, Pippin, The SpongeBob Musical, and Beautiful: the Carole King Musical.
In the area of classical and orchestral work, I have performed with the Holland Symphony, Jubal Brass, St. Andrew's Cathedral Brass, the Calvin Community Symphony, Grand Rapids Choral Society, and I am a founding member of the Antiphon Brass Sextet. I have had a long relationship with baroque solo trumpet ever since performing Telemann's Trumpet Concerto in D as a student with the Calvin College Orchestra. In 2010 I was a guest soloist with the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys for their concert entitled Music for Royal Occasions performing Handel's aria "Let the Bright Seraphim" from the oratorio "Sampson" with soprano Diane Penning. As a guest soloist with the Calvin Oratorio Society I performed "The Trumpet Shall Sound" for their annual performance of Handel's oratorio "Messiah" in in 2011 with bass Jason Thoms and again in 2012 with bass Ricardo Lugo. Grand Rapids is fortunate to have a number of great church organs and I've had the opportunity to perform trumpet and organ works at St. Andrew's Cathedral, the Basilica of St. Adalberts, Park Church, Fountain Street Church, and LaGrave Avenue CRC.
Since hearing Manard Ferguson live in Ludington Michigan as a junior high school student, jazz and rock horn sections have facinated me. Attending a college that didn't have a jazz program was a serious oversight but luckily I was able to find groups outside of college to play with and perform these styles of music with. Over the years I have performed with Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, Fairey Fox, Hey Marco's Steely Dan Tribute Band, the jazz combo Kopper and Keys, the Grand River Big Band, Grupo Latin Soul, and the Hark Up Horns. I'm currently the lead trumpet for Big Band Nouveau and sub with many other big bands in West Michigan.
I have recently taken over as the Warburton Mouthpieces representative for West Michigan, a position previously held by Jeff Ayres and Lynn Asper. As part of that role I have a kit of over 50 different Warburton mouthpiece components, reach out for a personal mouthpiece consultation!
I have been fortunate to study the trumpet with two phenominal teachers, Charley Lea and Gregg Good, both of whom instilled in me a love of the instrument.