Born on the auspicious day of Friday, the thirteenth, I entered the world during the mild Arizona winter in mid-January. In Phoenix, among the tumbleweeds and hitching posts, I grew up, went to public school, and eventually left for college, landing in the only place more "Western" than Phoenix--Tucson, Arizona (Yee-haw!!!).

At The University of Arizona, I majored in music and minored in religious studies. While an undergraduate student, I studied saxophone with Kelland Thomas and played in various and sundry ensembles. However, during my last year I discovered my current field of study, ethnomusicology.

After graduation, I taught for a year with the Arizona Jazz Academy in Tucson, Arizona. During that time I was fortunate enought to serve as an instructor for middle school and high school level jazz ensembles. I also team-taught a music technology course that covered audio engineering and live sound reinforcement.

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at UCLA with a dissertation project on the music of the Jbala region in Northwest Morocco. As a graduate student, I have studied North Indian sitar (lute) with Ustad Shujaat Khan, qanun (Middle Eastern zither) with Mr. Ergun Tamer, and nay (reed flute) with Dr. A.J. Racy. As a specialist in music the Middle East and the Maghrib, I served as the assistant to Dr. Racy for his Near East Ensemble at UCLA and led the UCLA Near Eastern Takht during the 2007-8 school year.