Research &
Publications
Published work spanning brass pedagogy, the cognitive foundations of musical technique, music in propaganda film, and the lives of musicians in postwar East Germany.
Imagination as Technique
Reflections on Sound and Ease
This paper argues that much of what is commonly treated as mechanical technique is, in fact, imaginative and cognitive in origin. It proposes that imagination itself constitutes a form of technique — that internal sound conception, mental framing, and the assumptions that precede action must be regarded as foundational rather than ancillary to reliable, expressive performance.
Drawing on the pedagogies of Arnold Jacobs and Vincent Chicowicz, as well as research in motor imagery, audiation, and the Alexander Technique, the paper introduces the concept of idealization: the deliberate construction of an internal model of ideal sound, ease, and execution. In an environment that often rewards visible accuracy over perceptual depth, reasserting imagination as technique is not an act of nostalgia but of recalibration.
Imagination as Technique: Reflections on Sound and Ease
Coming soon — Journal of the International Trumpet Guild
On imagination as a foundational form of instrumental technique, drawing on Jacobs, Chicowicz, Gordon, and Alexander.
A Voice in the Dark: Hindemith’s Trumpet Sonata and the Fascist Aesthetic
Coming soon — Journal of the International Trumpet Guild
Paul Hindemith’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1939), composed during his Swiss exile as Europe moved toward war, occupies a charged rhetorical position in the trumpet repertory. Drawing on Susan Sontag’s description of the fascist aesthetic — alongside Benjamin, Mosse, and Adorno — this paper examines how the sonata stages culturally legible gestures of public address, command, and ritualization while systematically denying them the ideological closure that authoritarian aesthetics requires. The trajectory from declarative opening through lyric withdrawal to a final chorale on Alle Menschen müssen sterben frames death not as political sacrifice but as shared human horizon — a refusal of fascist myth-making that carries particular weight for performers navigating the sonata’s ethical demands today.
The Hard Work Narrative
ITG Journal · January 2022 · International Trumpet Guild
This article interrogates the cultural mythology of hard work as it applies to trumpet playing and musical performance. It argues that there are no physical impediments to playing the trumpet well — that the instrument is, mechanically speaking, among the simplest reed instruments in existence. The “hard work begets success” mindset, while not without merit, is shown to invite confirmation bias, unnecessary tension, and a measurement culture focused on hours and repetitions rather than insights and discernments. The article proposes that inspirations and principles, metabolized through disciplined curiosity, are more reliable guides to craft than effort alone.
DataFrame.Trumpet
Pedagogical resource
A data-driven approach to understanding trumpet technique and performance trends.