Some things about me.

 

I remember the moment that I fell in love with the steel string guitar. It was a summer night, I was around 10 years old, and I was dining with my family at an outdoor patio, where someone was playing the sweetest fingerstyle melodies. I knew right then that I would have to  learn to play this instrument. Since then, music and guitar have been my happy place, my greatest love, my friend in solitude, and the river that has carved the path of my life.

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In 2009 while at university, I picked up a kit guitar from the Martin Factory in Pennsylvania. Since I was young, I had always been a "maker" with creative energy to burn, and was enthralled with the idea of building myself a guitar to play. That first kit guitar ignited the spark for a lifelong passion, and by the time the project was finished I knew I needed to learn how to build a better guitar.

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My passion for luthiery led me to my teacher, classical guitar builder Greg Brandt. I spent five years in Los Angeles as an apprentice in Greg's shop building nylon string guitars. I am forever grateful to Greg for sharing his time, knowledge,  wisdom, and friendship, and for teaching me true craftsmanship.

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In 2015, I left Los Angeles to go to Oakland, CA, to study and work with steel string builder Ervin Somogyi. For six months I was an apprentice in his shop, under the kind and masterful guidance of the Great White Whale of luthiery, Chris Morimoto. There are others who have offered invaluable help and learning along the way in my luthiery journey, to whom I am also grateful.

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I now live in beautiful Washington state, in the foothills of the mountains between the United States and Canada, where I build a small number of guitars a year. I am a lover of music and a student of classical piano and partimento. When I am not in the shop, I am making music or walking with my dog in the woods and talking to the trees.

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