Short Biography

I became interested in the guitar at age 11 with the Beatles’ music and further developed my playing skills with the music of James Taylor and Paul Simon. I played guitar throughout high school and college, and 6 months prior to graduation, I first heard classical music played on guitar. I sold my steel string guitar, bought a student model classical guitar, the Carcassi Method book, the Segovia edition of the Sor Studies, a book of Aguado studies and an anthology of Tarrega pieces and joined the Peace Corps. After practicing 4-5 hours a day in West Africa, I returned to the States to study (undergraduate) music at the University of North Texas (then North Texas State University) with Tom Johnson. I spent the next 2 summers at the Aspen Music Festival studying with Oscar Ghiglia, Eliot Fisk and Robert Guthrie, and then studied at Yale University with Eliot Fisk and received a Master Degree in Music.

I subsequently went to medical school and practiced pediatrics for 33 years; this is discussed on another web page! However, the guitar, music, composition and performance were always a large part of my life.

Upon retiring from pediatrics, I began building classical guitars. My learning has been sped along thanks to on line courses by Pablo Requena, Robert O’Brien and Garrett Lee, to mention a few. I have been building since 2020, and am currently buiding double tops, lattice braced and fan braced guitars using high quality woods.