Music performance has been an active part of my life since I began middle school. I played saxophone in the school bands through grade school, moving from learning the basics to performing in Carnegie Hall. At the start of college, I expanded my performing to include vocal music. I was a vocal soloist with the Davidson College Music Department and a bass/baritone and the former President of Davidson Androgyny A Cappella. I also played the saxophone as I took lessons in jazz performance. I have continued to sing and play the saxophone on my own after graduation.
Davidson Androgyny
Davidson Androgyny is an a cappella group founded in 1998 at Davidson College. In my freshman year, I auditioned and was accepted as a member. During my junior spring, I was elected as President to serve through my senior fall. As President, I organized performances, coordinated group communication, selected music, arranged group retreats, conducted rehearsals with the Music Director, and outlined budget proposals with the Treasurer.
Vocal Performance
With seven years of instrumental music performance under my belt, I decided to venture into vocal music performance when I began my studies at Davidson College. I had minimal experience at this, mostly through ensemble positions in high school musical theater, so I believed this would be a satisfying new challenge. I took half-hour vocal lessons each week with an additional few hours of practicing on my own. Once a semester, there was a recital featuring many vocal soloists, including myself, performing songs relating to a particular theme. I have embedded a few recordings below in the order they were performed.
Saxophone
I began playing the saxophone in 2010, learning the basics in middle school. I began at the lowest level in high school, Varsity Band, for my freshman and sophomore years, moving from 6th to 1st chair. Then I moved up to Concert Band and was the 1st chair there for my junior year. Senior year I was promoted to Symphony Band, the highest level, and played the baritone saxophone, which allowed me to also play in the Jazz Ensemble. On top of those two ensembles each day in school, I was also in Wind Ensemble, which was composed of the top two players for each instrument and met each Thursday morning before the school day began. In the spring of 2016, in what will likely be the peak of my saxophone career, I performed in Carnegie Hall with the Pioneer High School Symphony Band and Wind Ensemble.
At Davidson, I continued my transition from a classical saxophonist to a jazz saxophonist. Each week I took half-hour lessons to learn the fundamentals of jazz and practice for a couple of hours on my own.
Below is a video of a performance I had with the Pioneer Jazz Ensemble in which we perform "Cotton Tail." I am the baritone saxophone player, found in the bottom right corner of the video.