How I got started with BIG BEAT!

My Role: conductor, arranger, composer, and emcee!

To describe my role in the band, we need to go back to the very beginning. In 2013, I took my first arranging and composing class. I immediately was hooked, and by the summer of 2013 I wrote my first big band chart. My senior recital was coming up, so I naturally wanted to perform my first chart. Good things come in threes, so I decided to write two more charts in three months. 

While rehearsing these charts with the William Paterson University Big Band, our director Dr. David Demsey missed a few weeks of classes due to a winter cold. Suddenly, I was in charge of running rehearsals and conducting the band!

I fell in love with conducting, arranging, and composing all at once as I performed three big band arrangements on my senior recital. One of the charts was "Just Too Much", which was recorded on Big Beat's first self titled EP. 

After I finished this thrilling recital, I had spare time on my hands and no band to play my charts. After about nine months without big band music, I had enough. Some of my friends from WPU had been talking about starting up a big band, and we squeezed ourselves onto stage for our first gig. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to conduct. Leading is something I love to do, and performing with Big Beat is such a huge part of that. I owe so much to my co-leaders Charlie Dougherty, Phil Engsberg, and Ryan Tomski who all work together to make sure our mission of performing fun and refreshing big band music comes to life.