Since playing the violin at the age of three, music has been an ever-present part of Aaron’s life, though he felt he found more of his “calling” with the trumpet in Grade Six. Throughout middle and high school, while being a tad frustrated with how with how streamlined and homogeneous “college-serving” public education was becoming (standardized tests, bleh!), he became interested in the workings of the mind while pursuing trumpet studies. While in high school he studied with James Dooley and Mark Inouye, who were both enormously influential in different aspects of his musical and personal growth. After participating in such groups as the California All-State Honor Band, the National High School Honors Orchestra (Principal trumpet), and various youth orchestras as Principal Trumpet, he joined the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra under the direction of Benjamin Shwartz, which he credits as being one of the most influential and memorable musical organizations he’s ever been a part of. Aaron was fortunate to play in Davies Symphony Hall, and got to perform such inspiring repertoire in as Stravinsky’s Le Chant du Rossignol, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Dvorak’s New World Symphony, the two latter pieces of which he took on tour to Eastern Europe. Perhaps this is why he feels a special affinity for not only the city of San Francisco but for its musical crown jewel, the SFS.
Aaron is currently in his second of five years on scholarship at McGill University in Montréal, Québec, a city that is decidedly off the hook in ways cultural, historical…the list goes on. A trumpet student, studying with Professor Edward Carroll, he is also pursuing a simultaneous degree in Psychology with a planned minor in Cognitive Science. This past summer, he got a kick in the butt by choosing to attend the Chosen Vale Institute for Advanced Musical studies, where he witnessed an entirely different plane of music-making. Particularly inspiring was being given the opportunity to play parts of the Tomasi Concerto for Trumpet for internationally-renowned virtuoso Håkan Hardenberger.
Aaron has also performed for such artists as Mark Gould, James Thompson, and Adolph “Bud” Herseth, and has been led in rehearsal by Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas of the San Francisco Symphony.
On the academic front, while being constantly inspired, Aaron is realizing slowly how much he doesn’t know. Respect, Socrates. This past summer he was fortunate to get a position at the Ptito Laboratoire at the Université de Montréal, mostly preparing slides and watching cool science happen. As far as interests, he is focused on consciousness, independently, as well as how it relates to music perception and cognition, a field which fascinates and inspires him in its scope. He plans on eventually figuring out how to bridge these two parts of his personality and interest, but for now, is enjoying the ride. He recently joined a cool band, The Belle Game. Check ‘em out at my links page.