Born in New Jersey and raised my entire life in the beautiful warm island of Puerto Rico, I started my interest for the flute at age 14. Being from a musical family where my dad played the piano, my mom singed and my older brother played the saxophone I decided to learn the flute and play at church with them. Although my “classical” training did not start until I was a senior in high school, I was exposed to learning songs by ear in church and by playing jazz/pop arrangements in the high school bands, making the switch was “easy” considering that I auditioned with a Handel Sonata which I had almost memorized by ear and I knew all my scales thanks to the improvisation that I was exposed to in band.
During my development as a classical flute player in the Conservatory of Music in P.R. the influences of both worlds (jazz and classical) was evident in my playing and there so, I decided to start exploring what really made me happy as a human being without letting go of the academic discipline.
I was recently accepted in the DMA program of Stony Brook as a hybrid student with Carol Wincenc in flute and Ray Anderson in jazz. I was awarded an assistantship as well. I am really excited about this opportunity to refine my skills in flute playing but also exploring my composition abilities and get my voice, my music out there. Besides the Zohet project, there is a future project with original arrangements and compositions that will be recorded for different instrumentation (flute choirs are included!) Also, there are some video tutorials coming soon for Trevor James that I will explaining in details Extended techniques to play pieces like Zoomtube and The great train Race.
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