Teaching

Adjunct Professor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University: 2024 - Present

• Graduate Theory Seminar: Seminal Works of the Last 15 Years: [Fall 2025] I am designing this asynchronous graduate theory course. Works we will analyze include The Companion Guide to Rome by Andrew Norman (Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Sound from the Bench by Ted Hearne (Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and commissioned by Westminster’s Dr. Don Nally), and This Love Between Us by Reena Esmail, among others.

• Graduate Theory Seminar: Psychoacoustics: [Fall 2024] I designed this asynchronous graduate seminar in Psychoacoustics, a field which integrates cognitive psychology and the physiology of hearing to enhance our understanding of music perception. Through Psychoacoustic principles such as temporal gestalt perception, auditory stream analysis, and pitch perception, we investigated the nature of how we hear and the emotional impact of sound. We used the lens of perception to provide a comprehensive overview of music without limitation to aesthetic or tradition, musical parameters that we discussed include temperament, temporality, range, timbre, texture, form, musical quotation, style hybridity, process-based works, contemporary approaches to harmony, rhythm, orchestration, and the role of performer agency in interpreting and shaping musical outcomes. Examples of composers we discussed includes Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, Unsuk Chin, Alvin Lucier, Caroline Shaw, Steve Reich, Christopher Cerrone, Morton Feldman, Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne, and Reena Esmail, among others.

• Musicianship I - IV: Music Theory, Ear Training, and Keyboard Studies are consolidated at Westminster Choir College.

• Current Trends: 20th & 21st Century Composition Techniques: We discussed non-serial atonality, 12-tone serialism, total serialism, and other composition techniques employed in trends including Neoclassicism, Musique Concrète, Aleatoric & Indeterminate Music, Poly-Stylism, Spectralism, Minimalism, Post-Spectralism, Post-Minimalism, New Complexity, etc.

Lecturer at California State University, Fullerton: 2023 - 2024

• Music Theory: I - IV: Diatonic, Chromatic, and Post-Tonal Techniques were discussed.

• Musicianship: I - IV Diatonic, Chromatic, and Post-Tonal Techniques were implemented in ear training exercises and dictations.

• Advanced Composition: I designed this course with the aim of providing a comprehensive overview of contemporary music without limitation to aesthetic or tradition.

• Orchestration: In this course, we discussed characteristics of each instrument and their respective instrument families, emphasizing proper notation and writing practices. Students wrote their own compositions for strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments, focusing on solo, small ensemble, and large ensemble settings. Lectures covered effective instrument use, idiomatic writing, voicing, texture, and balance considerations, as well as extended techniques.

• 20th and 21st Century Composition Techniques: We contextualized compositional practices of the 20th Century and beyond, emphasizing the concept of mosaicism to appreciate the diverse musical explorations happening concurrently.

Guest Speaker at OAcademy’s Gabriela Ortiz Composing Studio: 2023

• As a Guest Speaker, I spoke about the process of collaborating with dancers and my time in Residence at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts. The Gabriela Ortiz Composing Studio by OAcademy is a nine-month virtual lab offered in partnership with Harvard University DRCLAS. Open to 10 innovative composers earlier in the career development, participants will train with and receive mentorship from a range of leading music creators across the field, all under the guidance of celebrated Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. Other faculty include Grammy Winners Osvaldo Golijov, Tan Dun, Pulitzer Prize Winner Jennifer Higdon, McArthur Genius Grant Awardee Tyshawn Corey, and renowned composers such as Mizzy Mazzoli, Donnacha Dennehey, Marcos Balter, and Gabriella Lena Frank.

Teaching Assistant at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music: 2020-21, 2022-23

• I taught Aural Skills (Ear Training) for two years at the University of Southern California, primarily with Popular Music and Music Production Majors. I gauned experience developing syllabi, lesson plans, and meeting exit goals. My first year teaching was exclusively via Zoom, and my second year was in person. (Year off due to Covid-19 Pandemic.)

Faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music’s Young Artist Summer Program: 2019

• I taught Music History and Theory to students aged 14 to 21 at the Curtis Institute’s Young Artist Summer Program. Each lecture contributed to a historical timeline and taught analytical skills by pairing Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic pieces with 20th and 21st century works. I gained experience crafting effective lesson plans and establishing meaningful connections with a broad range of students in a condensed timeframe, being that the festival was several weeks in length. I additionally gave private lessons to composition students at the Young Artist Summer Program.

Faculty at the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program: 2014 - 2016

• I taught Composition and Music Theory to advanced middle school and high school students for the New York Philharmonic. Other faculty included Angelica Negron, Pultizer finalist Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Danny Felsenfeld.