What have you been up to since leaving UB?

Since graduating from UB in 2010, I completed my Master's in Cello Performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in 2012, and following that I worked in the city for about 3 years teaching and performing. I worked for Associated Solo Artists from 2013-15, giving concerts and lectures in schools throughout the Adirondack Park region, and in the spring of 2014 I went on tour in Beijing and Shanghai China with Manhattan Symphonie. Also beginning in 2012 I started teaching at the annual summer festival Chamber Music Institute at the University of Maine, and have been there every year since. I ran a contemporary ensemble that performed all over the city from 2012-15, and in 2015 I left the city to join a new orchestra in residence at Bard College called The Orchestra Now, under the direction of Leon Botstein.

How did your experience in the Department of Music prepare you for a future in music?

The UB Department of Music helped prepare me for a future in music in that I received an extremely well-rounded education in my approach to the cello, being prepared for solo repertoire, chamber music, contemporary music and orchestral music all very well. I tested out of all my qualifying exams at the Copland School because of my work in Theory and History at UB, and the practice and performance routines that I learned and developed at UB have continued to help me and give me an advantage.

Can you tell us about any recent performances, awards or music-related activities?

At the end of June I played two concerts in a newly-formed contemporary music festival in Toronto called the Toronto Creative Music Lab, and earlier that month I played the first concert of a new chamber music series that I'm directing in Hudson NY, in which we are partnering with a historical society in the area to program chamber music in historically-significant spaces in the Hudson Valley.

Do you have any advice for current UB Music students?

Make as many friends as possible. Forgoing an hour in the practice room to develop a relationship could mean the difference between being invited to a new festival or an exciting gig or not. But make sure you make up that hour of practice another time!