2024 (life after tonebase)

I was so fortunate to spend almost five years serving as head of piano for Tonebase, which I will henceforth spell with a capital-T. Tonebase brought together two lifelong passions of piano and video creation, and I gained new skills as well as insights into the music industry during my time there. By the end of 2023 the time had come to move on, and I'm excited to be pursuing new projects and opportunities in 2024.

While at Tonebase I produced hundreds of video lessons and interviews with world class concert pianists.

In addition to the producer, director, and manager hats I wore at Tonebase, I began moonlighting as a YouTuber, creating dozens of fun educational videos and growing the Tonebase Piano channel to more than 150,000 subscribers.

One of my last YouTube projects for Tonebase featured an exclusive interview with Yuja Wang and Teddy Abrams that I used as the basis for an hour long documentary about the Abrams Piano Concerto and Yuja's "American Project" record – which recently won the GRAMMY for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

But the pianist who made the biggest splash on YouTube was 2022 Cliburn gold medalist Yunchan Lim. My breakdowns of his Rach 3 and Liszt Feux follets each eclipsed 1 million views, the latter part of a series I left unfinished. Until now!

This past February I launched my own YouTube channel, and have released several video essays – including one about Glenn Gould’s notorious Brahms Conerto performance that is approaching 500,000 views:

How Glenn Gould Broke Classical Music

Also, you should know, I don't only exist in pixelated form! I'm also a flesh-and-blood human being, excited to return from cyberspace to pursue opportunities in the physical world.

In February I gave a presentation at NYU for the Piano Teachers Congress of New York entitled Creating Piano Education Content for YouTube.

I'm also excited to get back to in-person teaching, recently joining the Utah State music faculty.

This past summer I directed the USU Summer Piano Festival, which was a great success – as this photo reveals.

As of fall 2024, I’ve established my new company LaudeArts offering services in content creation and consulting to classical music institutions. To-date, I’ve already secured partnerships with the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Chopin Foundation of the United States – resulting in ongoing content creation projects that will lead to the release of dozens of videos and podcast episodes through the remainder of the year and into 2025. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, back to practicing editing!