The first twenty-four years of my life took place in the Midwest. I was born in Toledo Ohio and grew up outside of Detroit Michigan. I attended Cranbrook Kingswood High School in Bloomfield Hills Michigan and this is when music and the performing arts became my main focus. I went on to pursue music at the Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio and graduated in May of 1997 with a BM in TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts).
While at Oberlin, I became interested in folk-rock music and began my performance career as the keyboardist, vocalist and audio engineer for "Days Like This", a professional folk-rock band with four other members. During the summers, I also played in a duet called "Blind Ambition" performing improvised folk and electronic music. By the end of my college career, I had become proficient on the acoustic guitar and my primary goal was the fusion of folk, Celtic and World traditions with the electronic styles I was studying at Oberlin.
In October of 1997, I accepted my first "real" job at The North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, Massachusetts as the Assistant Sound Engineer. In the Summer of 1998, I was promoted to Chief Musical Engineer. While continuing work at the theater, I began recording the album "Free Mind". This debut solo release reflects the merging of several diverse styles: acoustic, Celtic, electronic and ambient. In order to successfully promote the CD, I moved to downtown Boston in October of 1999 and began my search for a new job with musician-friendly hours.
In April of 2000, I finally left the world of professional theater and began a temporary position at iXL, an international web design and e-marketing firm. This contract ended in early summer, and I resumed my never-ending search for a new day job. In the interim, I found steady work as a freelance audio engineer for local bands and at WBUR, Boston's NPR news station. After months of searching and hoping for a job within the realm of web design, my patience and persistence finally paid off. In late-August, I was offered a full-time position with iXL as a Junior Site Author...