Teaching Philosophy

I believe the strongest music education develops musicians who can listen deeply, think independently, respond creatively, and communicate meaningfully through sound. My teaching is therefore centered not simply on the acquisition of technical skills, but on developing students’ ability to make informed musical decisions. In percussion, this means cultivating technique, time, sound, listening, improvisation, repertoire knowledge, and musical interaction as interconnected elements of musicianship.

My approach to teaching jazz percussion begins with listening. Before students can meaningfully contribute to an ensemble, they must learn to hear what is happening around them: the rhythmic language of the music, the phrasing of their colleagues, the role of silence, the shape of a musical idea, and the larger form of a performance. I encourage students to listen beyond their own instrument and to understand drumming as an act of musical interaction rather than simply accompaniment. A successful percussionist must know when to lead, when to support, when to respond, and when not to play.

Improvisation is central to this process. I approach improvisation as a learnable musical language rather than an ability possessed only by a select few. Students develop improvisational fluency through focused work with rhythm, sound, motifs, repetition, variation, space, and spontaneous interaction. My pedagogical work emphasizes giving students manageable structures within which they can experiment and make meaningful choices. By limiting musical materials at first, students learn to discover possibilities within those materials rather than relying on complexity for its own sake. This process develops creativity, confidence, rhythmic vocabulary, and the ability to sustain a musical idea.

One example of this approach is my work with rhythmic density and silence. I ask students to begin with extremely sparse musical environments—sometimes a single musical event within an entire measure—and gradually increase the density of their material. At each stage, silence remains an active musical element. The objective is not simply to produce more notes, but to develop an awareness of space, timing, anticipation, repetition, and consequence. Students learn that every sound carries musical responsibility and that compelling improvisation often emerges from what a musician chooses not to play.

My own development as a percussionist has also been shaped profoundly by classical training at the doctoral level in solo, chamber, and orchestral percussion. That experience expanded my understanding of sound, phrasing, articulation, dynamics, rhythmic structure, and musical interaction, and it has had a direct influence on my approach to jazz and improvisation. I encourage students to see these traditions not as isolated disciplines but as complementary sources of musical knowledge. Technical precision, orchestral awareness, chamber-music listening, jazz language, improvisation, and contemporary percussion practice can all inform one another.

This interdisciplinary perspective is particularly important in percussion, where musicians routinely move among musical communities and performance contexts. I want students to develop the versatility to perform established repertoire with discipline while also having the creative independence to interpret, improvise, collaborate, and contribute to new work. My experience as a professional percussionist, educator, commissioner of new repertoire, and performer across musical genres informs this approach. I want students to understand both the traditions they inherit and their responsibility to contribute something of their own.

I also believe that teaching must respond to the individual student. Students arrive with different backgrounds, strengths, challenges, musical experiences, and aspirations. I therefore use a combination of clear expectations, structured progression, individualized feedback, and opportunities for experimentation. My goal is not to impose a single definition of what a successful percussionist looks like, but to help each student develop the technical and intellectual tools necessary to define their own musical identity.

At the university level, I see my role as increasingly shifting from instructor to mentor. Students should leave a lesson with more than corrections to practice; they should leave with questions to investigate, ideas to explore, and a clearer understanding of why they are making particular musical choices. I encourage students to become their own teachers by developing the ability to diagnose problems, design practice strategies, evaluate performances, and pursue questions independently.

I am equally committed to connecting studio instruction with ensemble performance, curriculum, scholarship, and the broader musical community. Jazz education should prepare students not only to perform but to collaborate, teach, create, arrange, commission, research, and engage audiences. I seek opportunities for students to encounter music from multiple perspectives and to participate in the ongoing development of jazz and contemporary improvisational practice.

Ultimately, my teaching philosophy is grounded in a simple principle: musicianship begins with attention. When students learn to listen carefully—to themselves, to one another, to silence, to rhythm, to sound, and to the musical traditions that surround them—they become capable of making deeper and more purposeful musical decisions. My responsibility as a teacher is to create an environment in which that attention can develop into technique, creativity, independence, and artistic voice.

At the University of Michigan, I would bring this approach to the percussion studio by combining rigorous technical and musical training with improvisation, deep listening, interdisciplinary exploration, and individualized mentorship. My goal is to help students become not merely accomplished percussionists, but thoughtful, adaptable, collaborative, and artistically independent musicians who are prepared to contribute meaningfully to the evolving field of music.