Reflecting upon my own education, I realize that the opportunities I had back then are not available to modern students. This disparity has colored my approach to education to this day.

When that first set of drumsticks was placed in my young hands, I knew that was what I wanted to do. As I matured and grew into a musician and teacher, my philosophy has been grounded on providing all students with the opportunities that I credit with giving me the focus and direction that turned my life around.

Once I became a teacher, I started to parse out what exactly it was about music that changed my life. I realized that not everyone could be a musician, but every child could benefit from a music education. I began to look at studies that correlated learning music and playing an instrument with increased proficiency in math. This synergy between my childhood music education and my adult research and teaching experience led to the development of my philosophy and program: Music in Everything.

The name Music in Everything was inspired from the time I spent immersed in the jazz scene in Greenwich Village. One night, listening to a band while waiting for a chance to play, I noticed a sign behind the bandstand, “Music is everything.” It got me thinking that, yes, music is everything. Not just to me, but in the larger scheme of things. I couldn’t get this expression out of my mind. Turning the statement around, I began asking everyone, including fellow educators and musicians, “What is music not?” The conversation always came back to the same thing. Music is a collection of sounds that are organized in a unified way. And sounds are everywhere from the sound of rain to the honking of a car horn. There is nothing that is not music, music is everything.

As I developed my educational philosophy, this idea was never far away. As I read studies on the impacts of music education on other subjects such as math and science, I also realized that music matters with other subjects as well. Putting music IN everything would create a well-rounded, unified educational experience as a pathway to empowerment.

In 2016, I joined the Middle School Jazz Academy (MSJA ) at Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) as teaching artist / instructor. Todd Stoll, Vice President of Jazz Education at JALC, had written an article about the ESSA Act in TIME Magazine. That same year during the first week of professional development for returning teachers (PD), I was prepared to inquire about Title I funds under the the guidelines of the new education law .