The purest way to communicate the human condition is through the beauty of music. - Edward W. Hardy

Another highlight was performing for Nas at his Watches of Switzerland and Haute Living event last year. Although I felt prepared as I arranged the backing tracks for my performance, I was extremely nervous. I honestly couldn’t figure out why because I have over 21 years of experience performing around the country, but this performance felt different. Maybe it was the legend himself or maybe it was extremely important to me, but I haven’t experienced a performance like that in a while. It’s funny that friends and family members of mine were telling me about how much they love Nas, the impact he had on their lives and how cool it was that I’d be performing for him. An old teacher of mine used to tell me, “if you’re nervous, then that means the performance is very important to you.” It’s quite possible that’s what it was, or it’s that I was star-struck, or I kept thinking about my family. I ended up having a great time performing and felt silly I was nervous to begin with.

Ultimately I think about who I want to inspire, and I think it’s important to have people who look like me to inspire other people from my community to join orchestras.

I composed original music to reflect the period in history and to pay homage to L. Frank Baum's touching story. The exploration of different genres of music (i.e. romantic, classical, modern, and folk) was used to express a purer sense of the emotions and the intentions of Baum's characters. There is a freedom in composing original music in a period piece. This story takes place in the mid-1800's, it is a fantasy that parallels the realities of that time in history. Oz is a dark and mysterious place, where evils abound, and there is an unknown about the future. Oddly, there are many similarities in the world today.