As a musician, my personal mission is to reveal to myself and others, in some small way, the truth and goodness of God through beauty. I’ve enjoyed music from a young age, studying piano and singing in various choirs, and in high school I started to discern a call to serve God through music ministry. In college, I enrolled in the music program at Eastern Michigan University, where I primarily studied piano, but also had the opportunity to take several semesters of organ lessons as well as sing in the university choirs.

As a young adult, I was received into the Catholic Church, and shortly afterwards began my first job as a liturgical musician. Since then I’ve had the great privilege of working in the Church as an accompanist, singer, composer, and music director for more than 20 years, most of those on a full-time basis. I am currently Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, MI, where I also attend with my wife and children.

My inspiration for composition tends to be need-based: I’m not satisfied with what’s available for a particular liturgical need. Perhaps I simply don’t like the available options, or maybe they don’t seem well suited for the particular community or musicians I’m working with. Either way, I begin to ponder how I might craft something better that will serve that need with some small measure of beauty. (My “Hymn to St. Joseph” is an example of this.)

Along the way, I’ve been surprised by the positive reaction to some of these “serviceable” pieces, and over the years various friends and colleagues have encouraged me to share them more broadly. I offer them here in that they might be useful to others–if they are, then thanks be to God!

This website is also something of a professional journal, where I can share observations and reflections from my many years in ministry, as well as work out and develop new ideas. I share these thoughts here in the same spirit as my compositions–I claim no expertise, but perhaps the sharing of my experience will be helpful in building up the Church. I also hope it will be an opportunity for me to grow in knowledge and understanding, as I make the effort to put these things into words, and perhaps to learn from others who visit.

If this website were to have a motto, it would be Philippians 4:8, “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (NAB). My intent is to focus on such things, and to avoid criticism or dwelling on what is wrong.