I have been teaching music in k-12 classroom settings as well as private instruction for 12 years. I still very much enjoy working with students, helping them develop their musical skills, sharing new forms of music and cultures with them and watching them grow into competent people and musicians. I have spent most of my years directing ensembles at the middle and high school levels. I spent a year and a half working with upper elementary school band programs. I have a strong love and passion for jazz and improvised music and many of those styles influence my curriculum and pedagogy. Along with being a music educator, I am also a professional musician. My primary instrument is the guitar and I have been playing professionally since I was seventeen years old. I still love playing, writing and recording music for myself and with other artists. The world of music is a vast landscape of creativity and I aim to share the many outlets that it offers with my students so they can find joy and excitement through their discipline. I am looking forward to working in a general music setting this year with all of the students k-5 and honing some new skills of my own.