I’m a guitarist, composer, songwriter, and music teacher from Los Angeles. A big focus in both my personal and educational practice has been on creating sustainable and nourishing relationships with music. I have designed and taught a high school course on music listening, history, and theory for musicians and non-musicians. This Mindfulness and Music class is an adaptation of a course I designed while studying at California Institute of the Arts, where I received my Bachelors Degree in Jazz Guitar. Before CalArts, I spent two years studying guitar and composition at Eastman School of Music. Along with jazz, I also studied classical and Renaissance music, American folk, and North Indian Classical Music, and I am currently working on my singer-songwriter project.
I have had a Budhhist practice for almost 8 years now, focusing mostly on learning from folks in the Vietnamese Zen Tradition under Thich Nhat Hanh. I also have gained much insight from Ajahn Brahm of the Thai Forest Tradition. I have done retreats and many visits to Deer Park Monastery in California along with regularly attending meditation groups at various Buddhist temples and various sanghas across the US and Berlin. At CalArts, I facilitated a weekly meditation group for students and faculty. Buddhism has been critical in my path of healing from severe PTSD and chronic illness. Since I began my Buddhist practice, it has been inseparably linked to music in my performance, study, teaching, and compositional practice.