Undergraduate DOUBLE-DEGREE Program

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Alumni Spotlight

What are you up to nowadays? Where are you currently based?
I am currently living the nomadic life. My fiancé is in Minneapolis, soon to be Quad Cities, Iowa, so I’m there pretty often. My quartet mates live respectively in Chicago, Philadelphia (my hometown!), and Los Angeles, and so we hop around from place to place. I also play with Contemporaneous in New York City as much as I can. It’s always exciting!

You’re doing a LOT of performing with your string quartet, ATLYS. How did you all meet?
We met in Chicago, and knew each other through various avenues, but we met “formally” through the Civic Orchestra of Chicago , which is the pre-professional training orchestra for the Chicago Symphony. We decided to form a quartet because all of us were interested in playing non-traditional, “crossover” string quartet music--we wanted to play indie/pop/world music and collaborate with other artists--not your typical quartet stuff. Now we’re incorporating 4-way looping pedals into our compositions! We wanted to see how far we could take the string quartet genre.

Can you describe how your group has evolved over the last few years?
Well, let’s see...our very first public performance together as a quartet was at sea! We spent ten months of 2017 on a cruise ship through Lincoln Center Stage. Lincoln Center Stage is under the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center umbrella, so we were representing them all over the world. We auditioned for them as a pre-formed quartet, seeing that it was a great opportunity for us to rack up performance experience together, get tight, and to make some music videos in amazing locations all around the world.
After we finished our time at sea, we decided to try out some tours on land. So, in 2018 we organized tours in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Mexico. We were able to collaborate with singers, composers, dancers--really all kinds of artists. For instance, in Dallas, Texas, we worked with Das Blumlein Project . They’re two sopranos, and we did this very cool interdisciplinary project with them including dancers, videographers, and textile artists. And now we’re signed with Brave Enough Artist Agency , based in Nashville, TN!

What kind of collaborations and projects do you have coming up this season?
Well, the next big thing we have coming up is another cruise contract, through the Lincoln Center Stage, on the Holland America Line. We are actually going to be with them for this ship’s inaugural voyage, and Oprah is going to be there! We definitely thought it was an opportunity that we shouldn’t pass up. We’ll get back from the cruise in early 2019, and after that, we actually have about twelve performances lined up with different colleges and universities around the US, which is pretty exciting. We’re looking forward to really honing our own identity as a string quartet. I also just won a job with the Quad City Symphony in the violin section, so I’ll be playing with them for about six concerts a year. And, I still play with Contemporaneous in NYC as much as I can. I feel very lucky!

What was your non-music degree in, and how has that influenced what you do currently?
I was a French studies major, and I found that it complimented my violin and musicological studies quite effortlessly. I was able to take a lot of French music history classes, and I was even able to incorporate my music studies into my French senior project. Bard is where I gained confidence in my writing, which is a precious tool, especially for my quartet. Anytime we have to write something--an application, a grant proposal, a newsletter to our fans, a delicate email--I’m the one who does it. Not to mention that I learned all about time management!

What is your favorite memory from your time at Bard and why?
It’s hard to choose one! The orchestra and chamber music tours to China and Eastern Europe were incredible, and I got to study abroad in Paris. But, I have to say one of my favorite memories from Bard is from my sophomore year when the Conservatory basically took over an entire floor in the Village F Dorm. Every Thursday, just about the entire conservatory would come over after the orchestra rehearsal, and celebrate an early start to the weekend! The tradition continued through graduation! It’s definitely one of my quintessential Bard memories.

What is the most important piece of advice that you would give to current students and recent alumni? 
For current students, I know this is controversial--but I think my most important piece of advice is to just say “yes” to opportunities. I know that the double-degree is busy, and it feels like you need to safeguard your time, but because I just said “yes” to performing at such a formative stage in my musical life, I graduated with what I feel like is unparalleled performance experience, an ability to prepare for multiple concerts (and different genres!) simultaneously, and a feeling of comfort and confidence in front of an audience. That’s how I got involved with Contemporaneous, and I am still working with them and getting paid to do it! You might not even realize how unique Bard is in that there is so much art happening on campus, not just in the Conservatory, so take advantage of it all! For recent alums, I think the same thing goes. Say “yes” to what you can--it’s how you network. And you should treat every performance, no matter what it is, like the most important performance you’ll ever give. Come prepared to rehearsals, put in the practice time, because you never know who could be listening! And, it’s just good practice because then that kind of playing will become your habit, your default. When a performance comes along that feels important, you’ll have the experience of preparing and performing at your best!

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Alumni Spotlight

What are you up to nowadays? Where are you currently based?
I've been in Los Angeles ever since I graduated from Bard and I'm loving it. My work here varies from the concert stage, to teaching at university, to recording for movies in Hollywood.

You do a ton of performing--you’re the principal oboist for the LA Chamber Orchestra, you organize Bach Marathons, play oboe with Hanson, and you recently were the soloist with Sofia Philharmonic in the Martineau Concerto. What has been your favorite performance in the last season, and why?
As much as my inner preteen was squealing when I played “Mmmbop” with the Hanson brothers, I’d have to say that performing as a soloist in Europe was definitely a highlight for me. The orchestra was fantastic and the Martinu is one of my favorite concertos.

You’re also a member of Wildup, a new music collective in LA. How long have you been involved with them? Can you talk about a particular experience that you’ve had with them that was impactful?
I've been playing in Wildup for the past 7 years. Some of the most impactful work we do is when we workshop pieces with composers. It's a valuable experience for the composers to try things and better understand how certain techniques work. As the performer, I love having that immediate communication with the composer so I can better interpret her or his intentions.

In addition to your work with Wild Up, you also do so much work with baroque music, on period instruments. What do you find to be the main difference for you between Baroque and Contemporary music, or do you actually find that they’re more similar than different? Do you enjoy playing one style more than the other?
I'm equally crazy about both genres! Each era has some of the most fun solo repertoire for my instrument, so naturally I was sucked into those worlds. New music is always so exciting to be a part of, and I especially love it for the times it's taught me to push my own technical boundaries. Sometimes it's liberating to explore new sounds and techniques, and sometimes it's wickedly challenging. Frankly, in my study of baroque styles and techniques I feel exactly the same way! The main difference between baroque oboe and modern oboe is the baroque oboe only has two keys, so it's much more technically cumbersome and difficult to tune. My experience with the baroque oboe certainly makes me appreciate and understand the advancements my instrument has made over the last 300 years!

You are also on the oboe faculty of the Bob Cole Conservatory at California State University, Long Beach, in addition to being a faculty member of the Take a Stand Festival with the LA Phil. What is your favorite part of teaching? How would you say that teaching has shaped your own artistry?
One of my favorite aspects about teaching is that I get to witness young people committing themselves to what they love. I'm very inspired by my students! Seeing their passion and discipline fuels my own ambition to be the best artist I can be.  

What is your non-music degree in? How has that influenced what you do currently?
Regretfully, I've lost a lot of the Mandarin that I learned at Bard's amazing language immersion program, but given the chance I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. It's tough to put into words the full extent that Bard influenced me, but those five years were certainly some of the most formative, productive, and motivating years of my life. Creative skills, entrepreneurial skills, time management, critical thinking, writing and public speaking skills, etc., these are all skills that have led me to where I am now and I am certain that my time at Bard was essential to their cultivation.

What is your favorite memory from your time at Bard and why?
I have way too many great memories to choose one favorite! Off the top of my head, I'm reminiscing about my last two years at Bard when I lived at Manor. My dorm room had a view of the Catskill mountains and some of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. There was an idyllic trail out the back that went through the woods where I'd go on runs to clear my mind before a performance or to take a break from homework and reed making. The location was perfect. I'd stroll out of my little castle and before I knew it I was stumbling on stage for my concerts at the Fischer Center. And those acoustics! Talk about perfection.

What is the most important piece of advice that you would give to current students and recent alumni? 
To the current students: keep taking advantage of the resources you have at Bard. Lessons, chamber music coachings, classes, performance opportunities; get as much out of them as you can. Make it a priority to go to concerts. Life after school has a lot of opportunities for learning and listening, but they'll never be as readily accessible as they are now.

To the recent alumni: now is the time to focus and push yourself further than ever. Allow yourself the patience and love to succeed, especially after mistakes and failures. I've lost far more auditions than I've won, and learning my own ways of how to cope with those losses has been essential to my progress.
*Interview from spring 2019