"I do not remember a time in my life when music was not sounding around me and therefore echoing in my mind nearly every moment thereafter. For the first thirty-eight years of my life, a career in music was my one and sole focus. I spent fifteen years teaching it. By age thirty-eight, the routine of education drove me to business. It was here I first learned that the world was full of passionate people outside the world of music and education. Work was work and music would become my hobby.

 

But in the twenty-five years away from the classroom business gave me a lifetime of experiences that would stir my creativity and bring me to writing and music again. What kept me connected was my passion for performance perfection fulfilled through music adjudication for over forty years. I continue to pursue the completely transparent music performance to this day.

 

In 2011, I re-entered the classroom and was given the gift to teach again until 2016. It was here that I realized how far music assessment had drifted away from the tried and true principles taught to me many years ago by the masters of performance assessment.

 

These lifetime mentors welcomed me into the judging community in my youth. Today, I spend my time teaching teachers the method and telling the story of music assessment to young undergrads. Today's mission is to pass on the proven methods of assessing music performance in a way the assures its presence in the schools of America.