Me, You, and The Notes On The Page

Hello!

If you’re reading this: congratulations! You have just entered a personal moment between you and me where I get to explain what I do and why. Born and raised in West Memphis, AR (about 8 minutes from downtown Memphis, TN), music was pretty much in my blood from the beginning: One of my uncles on my dad’s side is among the top musicians in Memphis and only plays by ear, and one of my uncles on my mom’s side plays at weddings for NFL stars. It was inevitable that I was going to play an instrument, but no one knew which one. I tried guitar at 4. I tried drums at 6, but neither of those really lasted long, and the only other instruments I tried were recorder in 5th and 6th grade and simple songs on the keyboard throughout my childhood. However, when I turned 13 and started school band. That’s when I fell in love with the trumpet. Before too long I was improvising simple melodies on it, and by the time I turned 14, I was writing trumpet duets (that were honestly pretty bad).

As the years passed by, I kept writing music and would often go to one of my band directors, Kaitlin Roll, after school to get feedback on the pieces I was writing. In the 11th grade, the Jazz Band played an arrangement that my theory class of 3 did of hit music from ‘Dreamgirls,’ that I did the music prep for, and by the time I reached college, I had fully developed a love for music composition.

At the University of Arkansas, I triple majored in Music Education, Music Composition, and Music Theory and studied trumpet under Richard Rulli and composition under Robert Mueller. After two years at UARK, I transferred to the University of Central Arkansas where I studied trumpet under Ross (Charles) Ahlhorn, composition under Paul Dickinson, and conducting under Michael Hancock, and eventually received a BM in Music Composition and a BS in Digital Filmmaking. At UCA, I had numerous concert pieces performed and premiered several short films from the UCA Film Department both as a composer and a filmmaker, winning awards as both.

During my time at UARK, I was selected to premier a piece for Black History Month in 2018, and during my time at UCA, I was selected as a presenter for the 2021 and 2023 Quoined Corner Academic Conferences, as well as nominated for Best Score and Best Choreography in the 48hr Film Festival for my work as Co-Composer and Co-Choreographer on Yours is the Earth (winning Best Choreography). Currently, I am based in Chicago, IL where I study Music Composition for the Screen at Columbia College Chicago under Kubilay Uner and write music for a variety of short films, animations, and video games.

Thanks for Reading!

-Erv