Piano with Marc E.

I'm a composer, and I chose this career partly as an excuse keep exploring all the other subjects I find interesting. Most of my pieces start with an extramusical idea – perhaps related to math, literature, programming, psychology, economics, you name it. I then explore and implement this idea as a computer program, and use that program to create a piece. I've been incredibly lucky in the education I've received. I did my undergrad at Stanford, where I majored in music (composition and piano performance), but I also took a wide variety of classes while I was there, including physics, honors math, psychology, linguistics, computer science, among other things. I never resented general education requirements, because they were an excuse to take classes I otherwise might not make time for. After my undergrad, I stayed at Stanford to do a Master's Degree in Music, Science, and Technology. I then took a couple of years off of school, tutoring both privately and at an after-school program for low-income students. The latter was incredibly rewarding, and I worked with students on any and all academic subjects they were struggling with. Finally, I decided it was time to go back to school and really devote myself to composing. I have been a PhD student at UCSB for several years now, and it has been a blast. All this is to say that I've been tutoring people in all sorts of subjects for almost 10 years: piano, violin, music theory and composition, high school math, calculus, physics, writing, literature, SAT prep. I think that because of my eclectic interests, I can help students make unusual and interesting connections between and within different subject areas. I have experience teaching all ages, from kids to retired doctors who want to learn to compose. When I took my first tutoring job, I remember feeling that it was crazy that I was getting payed to do something that I was enjoying so much. Teaching is a true passion of mine, and will certainly be part of my life for years to come.