I spent my formative years in Oregon, where I graduated from Oregon State University. After several years of working in Portland after graduation, I migrated south to Los Angeles. I attended UCLA for post-graduate studies and obtained a second degree from there. While a student in Oregon, I was a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jacob Avshalomov. It was mostly during those years that I developed a deeper appreciation for 20th century works by such composers as Vaughan-Williams, Bloch, Szymanowski, Roy Harris, Charles Ives, and many, many others. My teacher during the four years I spent in this orchestra (the oldest youth orchestra in the US, and maybe the world) was Hugh Ewart, a former pupil of the legendary pedagogue Ivan Galamian at Juilliard, and for fifty seasons was Associate Concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. He was also Music Director Emeritus of the Young Musicians and Artists (YMA, Inc.) program in Salem. I worked for both the Oregon Symphony and YMA. I later studied with Carol Sindell, former Professor of Violin at Portland State University. I finished my formal training after moving to Los Angeles, with Ayke Agus.
Some of the other outstanding pedagogues I've been privileged to work with include Catherine Petersen (my first violin teacher, who was a pupil of D.C. Dounis), Lajos Balogh (pupil of Tibor Varga, who also worked with Kodaly), Sherry Kloss (legendary Teaching Assistant of Jascha Heifetz), Elaine Skorodin (1968 Paganini Competition laureate), Jeanne Skrocki (Associate Concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony), and George Shiolas (pupil of Charles Treger, 1962 Wieniawski Competition laureate.) I studied the piano and music theory with Sharon Sadilek-Baggett in Portland for six years, during which time I participated in and was a laureate of the Oregon Music Teachers Annual Composition Competition and Solo Piano Bach Festivals.
In addition to playing the violin, I am a sometime transcriber of pieces for violin and piano that were written originally for other instruments/orchestra.
