Date
06/04/2025
Position Information
Position desired: Administrator, Other Position, Teacher
Subjects you can teach: 7-12 Humanities Teacher, 7-12 Vocal Music Teacher, Arts and Media Teacher, Instrumental Music Teacher
Willing to relocate to: Midwest, Northeast, Southeast
Summary:
I will be earning my PhD in Music Composition from the University at Buffalo in August of 2025. My background includes an internship with a Christian hip-hop producer, administration at UB’s Center for 21st Century Music, performing in a jazz band, teaching music appreciation (classical and via rock music), and adapting standard music theory teaching to students interested in songwriting and music production.
I am able to teach and direct a concert band and could teach choir, though I am most capable on brass instruments. I am most proficient in music theory, appreciation, history, music technology (songwriting, beatmaking, live sound reinforcement), and the artistic or philosophical concepts that relate. I am a fan of the Oxford comma. I have previously taught K-12 music, which included general knowledge (K-5), choir (6-8), and music appreciation (9-12), and planned the performance programs. Recent work has been in administration, particularly surrounding music and the arts, and I would enjoy (or even prefer?) a dual role, administration plus music teacher.
I know that at small Christian schools generalists are often prized, so I would be comfortable as a sub in any non-foreign language course, but can speak some Spanish. I am most capable in math (up through calculus), history, or theology. Additionally, I could coach soccer, basketball, football, track and field, or even golf, and assist with weight training, though my strengths are basketball, football, and weight training.
152 Elmwood Ave. Apt 2
Lockport, NY 14094 United States
Home Phone:
Cell Phone: (513) 703-6095
Email: [email protected]
CV or Resume
Website
Facebook Page
LinkedIn
Highest Level of Education: Bachelor’s Degree
Institutions Attended:
| Institution Name | Degree Earned (i.e., BA in English) | Date Graduated | Emphasis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belmont University | BM in Music Composition | May 2015 | |
| Ithaca College | MM in Music Composition | May 2019 | |
| University at Buffalo | PhD in Music Composition | May 2023 |
Employment History:
| Position | Employer | Dates of Service | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching Assistant | University at Buffalo | August 2020 | June 2025 |
| K-12 Music Teacher | North Spencer Christian Academy | August 2019 | June 2020 |
| Graduate Assistant | Ithaca College | July 2017 | May 2019 |
Additional Qualifications: Music Composition; brass instrument pedagogy; jazz band ensemble direction, basics of jazz harmony; some conducting experience; music notation software (Sibelius, Dorico); Digital Audio Workstations; Live sound reinforcement; songwriting and music production techniques; facility with upper level theory, including post-tonal (serial and related techniques, modernism, aleatory, minimalism, microtonality), Hepokoski & Darcy’s Sonata Theory, and pop music theory; experience teaching general education music theory and history-focused general education music appreciation; rock music (instructor of record); ludomusicology (study of video game music); able to teach brass pedagogy (in a music education style class) and demonstrate extended techniques on all brass (trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium/baritone, tuba); able to teach an overview of film music.
Music technology also includes providing broadcast audio for TV / radio; ad hoc setups in non-standard event spaces (pavilions, tents, barns, old factories), and some studio experience (hip-hop and rock).
Additional Experience with CCE:
Hobbies, Interests, and Family: Hobbies: Avid reader, especially science fiction though I have
Interests: restoring the American chestnut tree! I also want to plant
Family: wife of 9 years, daughter (5) and son (2).
Top 5 Books: For the last 5 years I’ve been in a PhD program, so almost all my reading has been light, right before going to sleep, or academic for my program. My favorites are War & Peace (8 years ago), Bleak House (10 years ago), Travels with Charley in Search of America by Steinbeck (4 years ago! Though I’m not sure you, dear reader, would count it…), New Hampshire by Robert Frost (3 years ago), and Eugene Onegin by Pushkin (6 years ago).
And the Bible (regularly), of course.
Top 3 Books: The Constant Rabbit (Jasper Fforde) – His worldbuilding is incredible, and I thought the premise fascinating, though this book’s satirical edge was without subtlety and founded in shallow stereotypes. I still find books like this fascinating as they show what tastemakers (authors, editors) think is good and relevant.
Thank You For Smoking (Christopher Buckley) – I heard an interview with him about the craft of writing, his father (William F. Buckley, who somewhat founded the modern conservative movement), the role of satire, and heard it was made into a movie. I’m tired of much of modern politics, so satire that is both actually funny and still relevant after 30 years is interesting.
The Innocence of Father Brown (G.K. Chesterton) – I have some Chesterton nonfiction on my nightstand, to read when I’m next able to read nonfiction that requires much of me, so I thought I’d give his mysteries a try.
Most Influential Books: Bible
War and Peace
[Most any C.S. Lewis]
A Handbook to Sonata Theory (Hepokoski & Darcy)
What to Listen for in Music (Aaron Copland)
How To Think Like Shakespeare (Newstok)
New Hampshire (Robert Frost)
In the First Circle (Solzhenitsyn)
Neuromancer (William Gibson)
Preferred Denomination Type: Reformed, Baptist, Anglican/Episcopal
Current Church: Grace Bible Church
Current Church Denomination: Nondenominational, formerly Baptist, mostly in the Reformed tradition but credobaptist.
Current Church Membership: Yes
Current Church Attendance: Weekly
Support of Traditional Marriage: Yes
Theology: Reformed
…but credobaptist.
Definitely, 100% Protestant, yet appreciative of the art and appreciation for beauty in Catholic and Orthodox thought/practice. Open to Reformed Anglicanism and liturgy in weekly worship.
Not a Cessationist, but unsure how to label broad skepticism of the Charistmatic / Pentecostal movement’s theology of the Spirit while retaining belief that God can choose to act however He wills and didn’t promise to not do certain miracles.
Want to grow in hospitality and ‘doing’ my faith. I tend towards heady, talky ways of showing my faith or learning about faith rather than good works and the work they then do via the Holy Spirit to sanctify my heart.
Belief in the inerrancy of Scripture?: Yes
Notes on Scripture: Yes.
Additional classical training: None specific to classical education, but I’m very interested in it and have been following its growth as a movement from afar via interviews and articles in the journal First Things and occasional spotlights in the magazines Plough and Comment.
Why I want to teach at a classical school: I want the best of human culture to be enjoyed, learned, and studied, while helping students learn skills which cannot be technologized away – such as discernment, how to be as a human, how to appreciate a thing for itself and in its context – so that they are ready for anything that may happen. I have the sense that the standards and expectations are higher, due both to the subject matter and more crucially parental investment in education.
Final thoughts: My last 8 years I’ve lived, worked, and studied as a very minority student (Christian and faithful to the Bible’s plain teaching), which gives me some facility with the language and worldviews (thought patterns) of atheistic / agnostic / New Age liberal educational institutions where Christianity is regularly denigrated or an example of something bad, even evil. This has helped me learn how to pick up and study the cultural artifacts which arise in this milieu, to understand how they work and why they say or do the things they are made to say and do, which subject matter is important and how it is often treated, while not giving in to objectification of some ‘other side’ or straw man arguments. This helps to interpret classical music, essays, other art, and even that great bogey-idea, Critical Theory, in a way that is gentle and gracious but unyielding to lies.