WHO AM I

And who do I want to be?

When I began my undergraduate experience, my career aspirations were straight forward; I wanted to study with violinist Routa Kroumovitch and I wanted to elevate my violin playing to secure a seat in a Broadway orchestra pit. Why? Because I knew I was a competent violinist, I have always loved the theatre, and (sadly) my classical training had never impressed upon me the broad creative range lying just beyond a traditional instrumentalist career. I could not have been more mistaken. For four years, I have learned that my ability to succeed in a fulfilling career has nothing to do with being perfect at a small number of tasks, but everything to do with having an open mind and willingness to welcome change. This mindset has given me the tools to transform the music culture of my university and I hope to continue learning how to meaningfully influence the entertainment industry.

November 2018 was the first time one of my peers asked me to edit a song of theirs before its release. I had developed some ability and reputation for detail, and this felt like a natural collaboration of my combined talents. This opportunity to explore my musicianship was exhilarating, so I began diving deeper into the world of music production and found more editing opportunities. This is where I met many of the (future) founding members of Mu Beta Psi Upsilon, and learned of an enormous problem at my university. My peers who chose to study music from a digital perspective found accessing School of Music resources extremely difficult, some all but gave up cutting across the narrowly defined pathways of musicianship at Stetson. I recognized that without some unified effort by a broader music community this systemic problem would not decline. Consequently, I began to network, collaborate, and build with others the necessary culture of change.

With the help of friends and two years of hard work, I became the founding president of the first Florida Chapter of Mu Beta Psi. It has been one year since we chartered, and we have already provided awareness for local poverty, programmed opportunities for children and young adults to engage with music, collected resources for essential workers on campus during the pandemic, and unified the modern and classical musicians of Stetson University. It is through founding Mu Beta Psi that I found my passion for advocating for inequities in the music industry.

There is still a lot I do not know about the music business, but I do know who I am. I am a leader, an innovator, a musician, and most importantly I am passionate. I am driven to address gatekeeping within the industry that gave me my voice and I am excited to address equity and accessibility throughout my career in Global Entertainment and Music Business.