Artist Statement.

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music"

- Sergei Rachmaninov

I don't need to preface my work with any sort of philosophical statement or existential reasons addressing why I came to pursue what I love to do. All I must say is that the piano, in every way imaginable, consumes me. It enriches my life. It encourages me and gives me hope. It tears me down and haunts me. It allows me to speak to others when words do not suffice. It is my dear friend, yet my great foe. At times I wonder why I chase after it so fervently if it brings to me so much discouragement and anxiety. But I have realized that my love for it has inexplicably never faltered, through even the worst of times.

How is it that this oddly configured and misshapen black object is the center of my world as a musician and human being? How do I live with myself knowing that my existence is comprised of sitting in solitude pressing eighty-eight black and white buttons day after day for hours at a time? To be perfectly honest, there's no simple answer. However, I can safely say that most pianists who share the same passion for music as I do cannot pinpoint exactly why it is they love what they do. It just happens. Like growing older or losing teeth.

Playing the piano is an addiction just as much as it is a passion. When I am away, I long for the sensation of the keys under my fingers, for the empowerment I feel when controlling each and every sonority to my content. I consider it my safe haven and my distraction from reality. While music is a tremendous blessing for me, it too is a struggle. For me, being a pianist involves a never-ending journey and path to achieve success and a unified understanding of what I do. There is no such thing as a vacation, or a break. There are no deadlines, due dates, or time frames. Music is a lifetime's worth of work which I, and all musicians alike, hope will someday culminate in a profound relationship to our art. The ambition of accomplishing this comes with great risk and small success, but the hope that it will someday come to fruition is what fuels me to continue with the same unwavering passion with which I began.