Pure Imagination is an educational concert scheduled for September 13, 2026 at The Parker in Fort. Lauderdale.

Q: How did you know that conducting was the career path you wanted to follow?

A: I played violin from kindergarten through 8th grade, and my older sister, who was part of the choir, said she found her best friends in choir and suggested I try it. My older brother also sang, so it ran in the family.  I went to an amazing music program in high school, which was a Grammy Signature School, and I joined the choir instead of the orchestra. 

I played soccer and did musicals, but at the end of high school, I was considering the medical field. I was working at the University of Michigan Hospital as a surgical tech and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. I came from a family of teachers, and I wanted to do anything but that because I saw my dad having to work two jobs. But I just kept coming back to music and education because that’s who I really was. So I went to Western Michigan University and just loved it. I found my people and a very supportive, talented faculty at the School of Music so that’s where I started to conduct.

Q: So why conducting instead of singing? Why did you choose that path?

A: I hope I’ve chosen both paths. I love singing and enjoy being part of an ensemble, but I’m a teacher at heart. A good conductor is part scholar, part singer,  part artist and is imaginative in the way they look at a score. They are really good musicians and have to translate that interpretation to the ensemble. That’s communication and education. So a really fine conductor has talents in all of those areas. I felt like I was a person who really loves diving into the whys behind music. I love thinking about the historical things that are happening around a composer when they wrote that piece. And I like pondering how that particular composer or arranger sets a text in a unique way to illuminate a part of who their musical being was. When I look at a score, my brain starts to… I call it decomposing. I look at a score and I try to figure out what makes it tick; what’s the composer trying to communicate? And how do I allow my ensemble to see that? I think it’s just who I am. I feel like conducting picked me; I don’t feel like I picked it.

Q: What do you find the most rewarding about conducting?

A: You do have influence on the sound when you’re conducting, but if you really do a great job in your rehearsal process, a conductor can basically stay out of the way. When Seraphic did the Bach motets last year, I sat on Patrick’s (Quigley) right side, and I’ll never forget how he just gave small stress points and very little else after bringing in the ensembles. It just meant that they had a collective understanding of what needed to happen, and he could get out of the way and just remind them of the larger ideas. I think that’s brilliant. Isn’t that the goal of conducting and teaching – to allow the artists to be the conduit of the music to the audience? It’s rewarding when the message the singers are trying to communicate actually makes it to the hearts of the audience.

Q: What are the goals of this educational concert?

A: Everybody that’s performing in the Seraphic Fire ensemble has had a moment where music reached out to them so intensely that it put a question in their soul that says: Should I do this with my life?

Seraphic Fire can have that kind of impact. They’ve been doing educational programming for a long time, reaching into schools and inspiring local youth. Some of these students have never seen a live professional music performance. Maybe some of them have this talent and reach the next level or at least see what it takes to be a professional musician. Seraphic Fire artists inspire them by  placing that kernel within them by just allowing them to think, “Wow that’s amazing. I want to do that.”

I’ll never forget when it happened for me. And it’s happened a thousand times since then. It happened in church while I watched a violinist play. I told my mom after the service, “I want to do that.” And I was in kindergarten.  

I’m really proud of Seraphic for caring about the next generation. They’re one of the best choirs in the United States, and here we are singing Let It Go. Initially, when James (Bass) talked to me about it, I said, “Are you kidding, James? You want me to do what? This choir can sing anything. Why this?”  Then James and I talked about it a bit, and I got an entirely different perspective.

In addition to Seraphic’s one-of-a-kind performance, I have a few fun ideas for the concert that I don’t want to give away. We are going to make some special memories and perhaps interactive moments with various songs. It is not going to be a ‘sit and listen to us’ experience. 

Q: How are you approaching your debut conducting gig with Seraphic Fire?

A: I’ve been to countless Seraphic Fire concerts and followed the trajectory of the ensemble. Now, my former teacher, James Bass, is allowing me this great opportunity, “Okay, you can drive the car, but make sure it doesn’t get any dings.” I feel that huge responsibility with them. I’m really excited for this project. 

In 2005 or 6, Seraphic Fire did a live concert in Kalamazoo, and I watched Matt Tressler and Derek perform Duo Seraphim, and I’m still speechless. Seraphic has that opportunity with these kids; it might be Let It Go. It might be Somewhere Over The Rainbow. 

I take my daughter to school every morning, and she is now on her fourth Elsa dress because she wears it nearly every day. And, we listen to and sing Let It Go. Yesterday on the way to school, she goes, at 3 years old, “Dad, I wanna listen to Let It Go by the Pentatonix.” Her favorite version is not the one from the movie. 

I know that there are kids out there who maybe haven’t heard this song any other way than Elsa, and now they’re going to want to hear it the way Seraphic does it, not the way Elsa does it. It’s an immense opportunity for Seraphic to cement memories and inspire the Miami youth.