Since I was 11 years old, I've been playing the oboe in various school bands and orchestras. I have continued this throughout college as well, from playing in various churches to performing in the Appalachian Symphony Orchestra and Appalachian Wind Ensemble. In anything I do, I enjoy things most when I'm putting my full effort into them. As such, I finished a music minor at App State while also studying the geology that interests me so much. While at App State I played very challenging works such as: Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Suite and The Nutcracker Suite, Shostakovitch's 5th Symphony, and David Maslanka's 10th Symphony and A Child's Garden of Dreams (links to recordings of some of my concerts below because I'm quite proud of them). I had the opportunity to perform on both oboe and English horn in two mini-operas as well: The Old Maid and the Thief by Gian Carlo Menotti, and Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein. 

 

At some point I picked up playing percussion as well. I played vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, and various drums in marching band in high school and for a semester at App State, and I have also performed multiple times as a percussionist in the Triangle Youth Academy Brass Band, and later in the Appalachian Concert Band.

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This has fallen to the back burner a little bit lately as I care more about advancing my career in geology, however I continue keep up with oboe by playing in a community orchestra. There is hardly a day that goes by where I don't have music of some kind running in my head or through headphones in my study time.

 

Performance links: 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKjvnp8yXD8

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KGDC8Gxwr0

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3wRhChSUL0

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE2_73lYWyo