As a musician, I am a guitarist first. I was raised in a household of musicians, and our musical pallet was extremely eclectic and diverse. My father, a native Austrian, is an accomplished violinist. Being a violinist was a natural inclination for him, as his grandfather was the Vienna Philharmonic Concertmaster prior to World War II. My mother is a pianist, vocalist, flautist, and guitarist, and she holds a degree in music education.
I am a self taught musician. With classical, classical Spanish, and flamenco guitar as my personal modalities of musical expression, I also play a wide range of musical styles, such as: progressive rock & metal, heavy metal, blues, fingerstyle, folk, some jazz, and I play the bass guitar. During the 1980s and 990s, I played rhythm and lead guitar in a variety of bands local to the area where I lived. Though I play a range of guitar styles, I always fall back to my first love of the classical guitar. I have had the honor of performing in guitar masterclasses taught by Jason Vieaux, Stanley Yates, and Mary Akerman. I attended music school, on a full scholarship, and with the classical guitar as my focus, under the auspices of Dr. William Yelverton. In 1998, I won the Rising Sun Award for Outstanding Achievement in Guitar Performance, and in the same year I captured second place in the Beethoven Club Young Artists Competition.
In addition to the guitar, I have cultivated other musical instruments, such as: the Japanese shakuhachi, the drumset, and the piano. I became interested in the Japanese shakuhachi during a time when I was healing from a serious illness that not only forced me to close my martial art school, but forced me to end the practice of martial art altogether. I had always been interested in bamboo flutes, but I didn't really know anything about the shakuhachi. I first began by crafting side blown bamboo flutes. I felt that meditation was a key element to my healing process, and the sound of bamboo resinated with a unique sound that vibrated deep inside my soul. Though I was crafting and playing side blown flutes, I felt that something was missing. With some research, I discovered the shakuhachi. The shakuhachi, in every sense, was the exact instrument that I did not realize I was seeking. Its very history is the embodiment of meditation and healing. I took my first few lessons with Perry Yung, of New York, NY, and eventually with Shihan Glenn Shōyū Swann, of Hamilton, NJ, who is now my primary teacher. As well, I have had the honor and pleasure of attending a masterclass taught by Kinya Sogawa, of Kobe, Japan. Aside from the above mentioned teachers, I am a disciplined self teacher, just as I am in everything that I do.
I have been teaching guitar since 1993. Around 1996, I had the honor of being teacher to a very young and musically budding Stanton Edward Adcock. I have had many successful students of the guitar, but Stanton is by far the most successful, and I am proud of him beyond that of what words can express. Beginning in 2014, I worked in the Bucks County Community College Learning Center, in Newtown, PA, where I became a Master Certified Tutor under the College Reading & Language Associates. During a period of roughly three years, I served as a mentor tutor to new tutors, and I was tutor to students who were achieving degrees in Music Performance, Theory, and Education; Sound Design, Cinema & Video; and a variety of writing and various other courses.
As a photographer, I am an artist first. In 2017, I earned a degree in Cinema & Video. My degree courses included a heavy emphasis on 35mm black & white film and digital photography. Shortly after attaining my degree, I designed and taught a class on The Art of Independent Filmmaking through the Bucks County Community College Continuing Education program. Prior to my academic education, I had gained substantial experience with independent filmmaking, as well as being a self-taught freelance photographer. Much of the professional photography work I did as a freelance artist was in weddings, portraits, events, and marketing. Though I worked in photography as a profession, my true passion was, and still is, in art photography.
My photography roots date back to my childhood. My father, in addition to being a violinist, was a photographer. I was always captivated by his work. At an early age, I recall expressing to him that I wanted to become a photographer. His advice to me was to first learn the art of black & white photography. He advised that mastering contrast and grayscale were the keys to being successful. He said that color is merely saturation, and that the image itself is truly black & white. Later in life, I was on a caving expedition when I discovered that color is absent in total darkness. When shining a flashlight on an object, while deep underground, bright and lush colors were virtually nonexistent, and in many cases they were completely nonexistent. That was the moment my father's words struck me at my core. All things are black & white by nature. They are colored only by light.
Today, absurdly excessive color saturating is a method of expression for a majority of photographers. The same photographers I speak of likely do not have an understanding of the wisdom my father once imparted so eloquently to me. Society's inundation of screens and screen resolution has dulled and desensitized its viewer's eyes. Society has become color blind and is desperately trying to compensate its blindness with ever more saturated imagery. When, in fact, the key is to return to the natural image–the black & white image–the image that has been stripped of all color. It is only by seeing no color at all that color can once again be seen. It is my chief aim to capture a scene or a moment as I see it. I aim to capture reality. I may not have achieved my goal at the moment, but I will always do my best.
Overly saturated and fantasized imagery is not my cup of tea. It may work for the masses, but not for this old chap.