I was a weird little kid, more interested in creative things than sports and school, although I did well enough in school to get into Purdue University as a theatre major (of course!). I also went to Oxford University in England and eventually earned an MFA from Goddard College. Goddard was where all the weird little kids went for grad school.

After college I worked as a guitarist until my hands started giving me trouble. Loving music, I slid into record production and eventually audio engineering. For a decade, I freelanced all over metro New York, mainly working with indie rock bands—I was more interested in developing talent than anything—and I set up the audio engineering program at Five Towns College in New York. It was exhilarating about producing, engineering and teaching audio. Life made a lot of sense. I still teach audio privately and I write a well-regarded industry newsletter, New Monday.

However, right at major label record deal payday, I developed acute tinnitus and lost what I had dreamed of doing with my life since I first heard The Beatles' Revolver at thirteen. My hearing was still excellent, but the tinnitus was untenable. No more producing for Luke. This was definitely a low point in my life.

I rebounded into theatre—I had the degree, why not use it? I set up the BFA Theatre program at Five Towns College and soon was directing regionally and Off-Broadway as well as teaching acting. Directing was very much like producing records: it was coaching people to get to their best performance. I directed everything from dramas to comedies to musicals and opera. I also coached acting, especially auditioning techniques and improv, and wrote and produced my own plays.

I discovered that I was a ridiculous autodidact, and that the weird little kid with the messy desk (because his brain was so scattered), could do just about anything in the creative arts. In short order, I became a professional photographer and ran the photo department of a newspaper chain for a while, learned web design and set up a web development agency that worked mainly for aerospace clients, and started painting (pictures, not houses).

I married, had kids, and needed something stable. Another major life shift: I started running a gifted and talented arts program at a top 100 public high school on Long Island. This was a fabulous gig for me, combining my love and abilities in the arts with my passion for helping people. My program was more like individual coaching for thirty-six super creative teenagers than lectures in a classroom. It also forced me to learn anything my students wanted to learn. Actually, learning something to teach it is the best way to learn, and the best way to teach.

As I approached my sixties, I felt too distant in age from my students to be effective. I retired, then suffered a personal tragedy, then Covid hit. Time for another major life shift: audio came back into my life. A former assistant, record producer Dan Korneff, approached me about setting up an audio software development company with him. Now I'm #2 at Korneff Audio, working on our marketing, developing products, writing, and strangely, I'm back in a world that I thought I'd never be in again.

And still coaching—and certified—still interested in helping the weird little kids of my tribe do something amazing with their talents and time.