I'm a music composer/pharmacist. I won a composition prize in 2006 for some music I wrote for symphony orchestra, and had it recorded on a compilation album dedicated to living classical music composers called Masterworks of the New Era. On November 22nd 2009 the Los Angeles Doctor's Symphony Orchestra will be performing my Serenade for Violin and Orchestra, which they have commissioned. It's at Plummer Park in West Hollywood at 3pm. I also work as a pharmacist to support my musical adventures, which also helps me indulge the scientific side of my personality. I am equal parts scientist and artist, though I aspire towards constant growth in the latter discipline.

I like to hike every couple weeks or so. I go up to Topanga Canyon Forest and hit the trails up there - it's nice and quiet - usually not to many people up there - and the views are really great. I grew up in a house on a mountain on the east coast, where I had an entire forest for my back yard. So, I enjoy mountain, wooded, streams, etc... type of settings. On the east coast, I used to fly fish - not so much for the fishing itself, but more for the scenery. There's something touching about walking up a stream in the middle of nowhere, where there's been little human impact on the surroundings.

I'm not much of a beach person. I own some property at the beach on the east coast, which I visit once per year for vacation. The beaches there are more private, cleaner, and not inundated with sprawl, as they are around LA. That being said, I do enjoy the restaurants around the Washington Street Pier in Venice, and I enjoy the peacefulness of walking around Marina Del Ray.

I've visited Yosemite Park up north. Man there's some really great views up there, the scale of which are incomparable. I hope to go back one day and hike. Also I've explored Death Valley, and found the setting similar to what it must be like to visit an alien planet. Soon as I get done writing this huge orchestral piece, I'm just going to get in my car and head north. I found this one interesting place a few years back, when driving from LA to San Jose, called the San Luis Reservoir. When I drove its curvy road, rain and fog were stirring, and the rolling green hills against the water made me think of Scotland.

I used to snowboard a lot when I lived on the east coast, and had friends with the same interest. I've been on some really great trips - me and three buddies of mine took one trip a while back, where we just drove around Vermont and New York. We'd snowboard a different resort everyday and we would just sleep where ever we'd find a motel. We stayed in this one bed and breakfast that was built in the 1700's - great home cooked food and nice views of the snow covered countryside from the dinning area. I've also been to several of the resorts outside of Denver, CO - lots of resorts just an hour away from Denver. And of course I've been to all the West Virginia slopes (my home state).

Hmmm......what makes me unique? My sense of humor is a little out there, but I can find humor in just about anything. I'm constantly in search of that next laugh. I like the occasional foreign film....Love Me If You Dare (French) is awesome, Lucia Y El Sexo (Spain) has a great music score, Cyborg She (Japan) was pretty good, Time (Shi Ga) (Korean) was ok, The Two Faces of My Girlfriend (Korean) was kinda funny, and Pride and Prejudice (England) is probably my favorite movie of all time - very well put together. I very much liked the setting shots in A Very Long Engagement (French), and also found very beautiful the shots (and music) in Silk (found it in the "foreign" section at the movie rental place, but it's in English).

Other than music writing, I'm mostly laid back and chilled out on everything. I like the rain, the way it cleans the air, the way it sounds on the roof of my condo, the way it smells. When I was in college, I liked just walking around campus with an umbrella, as it rained. I wish it would rain more in LA. I think it would be nice to enjoy a hot tea or coffee, in a window seat at a coffee shop, as it rains.

I like the architecture of the buildings at UCLA. Sometimes I use their music library for research, and enjoy walking around campus and looking at the buildings and how they interact with each other and the landscape.

Taste in music.......anything from the 20th century English classical era....Vaughan Williams, Granger, both Malcolm and Richard Arnold, Bax, Britten, Bliss, Walton, Finzi, Holst, etc.....

Coffee/tea shops, dinner, walking somewhere nice (maybe the arboretum/gardens in Pasadena or the calm waters around Marina Del Rey), or a light hike.