Bio

A fast description of my years.

Growing up

I grew up in Illinois and was born in the year of the Gameboy. My favorite things have always been computers and guitars.

My public high school had a wonderful arts program and our town had a strong arts community. I wrote music for school plays, was in the marching band, orchestra, jazz ensemble, a ska band…you name it.

I played a small role in a (now viral) talent show performance of the Halo theme song. 👾 I was also a Geek-Squad sort of guy: I fixed computers and websites for neighbors and small businesses in town.

Schooling

I completed a BFA in jazz guitar performance at the University of Michigan. There I explored my interest in playing guitar in musical theatre pit orchestras. It combined my classical music background with my joy of playing popular guitar styles. I was in every show or cabaret that would have me.

The summer after my sophomore year I played guitar for a student-made parody musical of Harry Potter, “A Very Potter Sequel.” This went completely viral.

Fans of Glee will recognize the star as Darren Criss. I've been glad to continue playing the occasional gig for him as a solo artist, and for other Potter crew productions.

LA

After graduating in 2012 I moved to Los Angeles for a job with an iPad-based sheet music startup called Chromatik. It was the early days of sheet music on tablets. I worked in QA, marketing, and ultimately ran our sheet music production team.

At the same time my college band had gone viral on Reddit for our cover of the soul classic “Sunny.” From that attention we successfully funded and completed our self-titled EP, Ann Street Soul.

Fans of Vulfpeck will recognize the extremely talented Ann St. singer as Antwaun Stanley.

Chicago

After a year in LA, I decided to move to Chicago to be closer to both a larger musical theatre market and my family. I continued working for Chromatik remotely.

After years of playing musicals in small theatres (and high schools!) I broke into Chicago's unionized theatre scene and began playing in larger-scale productions. I've been lucky and grateful to be a part of some wonderful shows.

A highlight to date has been being a regular sub in the Chicago productions of Hamilton. (For guitarist Felton Offard.) Some other favorites have been subbing on The Lion King, MJ: The Musical, Moulin Rouge, and recently, a full run of a new, Pre-Broadway version of The Wiz.

Soundslice

In 2015 I left Chromatik to join Soundslice as the content director and employee #3.

If you haven't seen it, Soundslice is a web-based music learning platform. It lets you sync sheet music with real recordings. It was founded by Adrian Holovaty and PJ Macklin

It's an incredible tool for self-study and teaching that's trusted by some big organizations including TrueFire, Premiere Guitar and Berklee College of Music. It's also a valued resources for independent artists looking to sell their own instructional music content. Artists include Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy, Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold and Enda Scahill of We Banjo 3.

I worked there for nearly 7 years and left after getting the bug to pursue a career in web development.

These days

I work as a developer at Mess, a web design agency in Chicago. My projects and comfort zone generally involve Python, Django and Vue.

You can often find me attending the Irish music session on Tuesday nights at the Galway Arms in Chicago.