My passion for music has always been a steady factor in my life. While people in my family never fully pursued music as a career, I knew it was a prominent thread in my big, beautiful Italian family’s heritage. One of my first memories of music was of my great-grandmother singing to me You are my Sunshine through her wonderful heavy accent. Most of the people in my family have had a natural performance aspect, singing almost everything they were doing as they were doing it, becoming comedic most times. With this, I am very grateful for my big and loud family since they have all inspired me to pursue my passions, whatever they may be.

 

As a child, I had always been brought up on Film, with my aunt even creating a bag called "The Movie Game” for our trivial guessing game to ensue on car rides. Movies were a huge part of my life, before anything really, and connected my family together just as much as music.

 

I started to perform around elementary school when my friend told me about

dance classes she was taking. Dance had been my passion for a very long time,

and was what I wanted to pursue in life, until some injuries continued to fester

and I ultimately had to let go of that dream. From dance, I had always focused

heavily on the music we performed with, analyzing every aspect to show through

my movements.

 

On one episode of So You Think You Can Dance, one group performance was

done to a cue by James Newton Howard called The Gravel Road. This has

remained my favorite cue to date and had led me down an amazing and inspiring

rabbit-hole to film music. Around this same time, I began to play the Flute since I

was told it was “the most difficult instrument to learn and start on.” I have been

playing for about 10 years now, performing in Flute Choirs, Woodwind Quintets,

Wind Ensembles, Marching Band, and much more. I branched out a bit into some

other woodwinds and even Cello, which my music departments, unfortunately,

never had string opportunities. Beyond that though, I was fortunate to have a large music department in High School which led me to develop an interest in music theory. This led to my passion for counterpoint and composition and everything flourished from there.

 

I couldn’t get enough of music theory and score studying, some say I was a “rare breed” to like such “boring topics.” I soared through everything my school could offer, including a Directed Study with an outside teacher. Then, I finally connected the dots around Sophomore year in High School and decided that I would become a Film Scorer and Composer.

 

                                                                                 The Conducting aspect came into play around the end of my                                                                                               sophomore year, auditioning for Drum Major to a 150+ group of                                                                                             players in my High School. I was awarded Drum Major for my Junior                                                                                   year, the earliest point you could become a Drum Major, and was                                                                                         sent to study at the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy at the                                                                                         University of Massachusetts Amherst. Once there, I studied under                                                                                       the wonderful Heidi Sarver and I knew conducting would forever                                                                                         become one of my passions and a front-runner in my life. I                                                                                                     continued to my Senior year and was a Head Drum Major, giving                                                                                         everything I could to the wonderful group and strived to make every                                                                                   performance better than the last.

 

                                                                                 I have always been, and will always be, a very career-oriented                                                                                               person. I have been inspired by my family’s work ethic to keep                                                                                             moving forward and to continue learning as much as I can in my life.                                                                                   Studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, I have continued to further my skills and will never stop striving to further my education and hone my artistry. I have taken a special interest to Orchestration as well and plan to continue advancing my passions in Composition, Conducting, and Film Scoring and whatever else may fall into place on this wonderful journey as a musician.