I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. My first big interest was astronomy. Starting at around 8 years old when my grade school took us on a field trip to the Adler Planitarium. After that, I was hooked. I used to spend long nights on top of the garage roof looking at the stars with my dad's binoculars. Later my dad bought me a small 4 inch Newtonian telescope, and then, when I was 13, I built my own 6" Newtonian telescope. Around the same time I became interested in classical music from my 7th and 8th grade music teacher, Mrs. Holyoak. How thrilling it was to listen to Mozart, Berlioz and Tchaikovsky for the first time. She was so kind to me and her love and passion for classical music really showed and it inspired me. I remember specifically she played a recording of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique just before Halloween and as the record played she described the story and how it went with the music Berlioz composed. I was absolutely captivated by it! Then she introduced us to the classical guitar. That's when my love for guitars started. My father bought me my first guitar when I was 13. I was so intrigued by all the different sounds I could create with it.

The next major influence in my life was my English teacher Mr. Mungie. I took summer school between sophomore and junior year as well as junior and senior year in his English classes. What an inspiration he was. He has a kind gentle spirit yet everything he did he did with such great enthusiasm and passion one couldn't help but be caught up in it and be inspired by the great literary works he introduced us to, from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Shelley to Keats, Emerson, Tennyson, Whitman, Hemingway, Frost, Somerset Maugham. When I saw the movie, “Dead Poets Society” Robin Williams’ character reminded me so much of Mr. Mungie I could not believe it!

When I got older, I made a living as an accounting clerk at an insurance company in Chicago. Later, I learned programming on my own. Through the encouragement and support of my co-workers and managers, I became a programmer in the same company. However, I still was not filling a deep need to create tangable objects. Then about 5 years ago I got the idea to build guitars. I thought this is a way I could contribute to the musical world and become part of it, so I studied guitar building and then took a guitar building class with George Morris at the Vermont Instrument School of Luthery. Again, with the support of friends, family and co-workers, and managers about 9 months later I moved to Pahrump, Nevada and set up my shop and started building on my own. I also received help from William Cumpiano's book on building guitars as well as help from him via e-mail.

Home | The Guitar | Philosophy | Biography | Current Project | Pricing & Ordering | Suppliers | Contact Me