Audio
Sound design.
Live production.
Performance.
During Covid I picked up guitar out of boredom, and then figured I might as well learn how to record it. Once I could record guitar, I realized I needed more instruments to make a complete song — and since I didn't know anyone who played them, I just learned them myself. Drums, trombone, piano, bass, keys. One after another until I could build something from scratch without waiting on anyone else.

The engineering came out of that same impulse. Below is a selection of work across sound design, live production, and instrumentation.
Taste of Chicago Taste of Chicago Taste of Chicago Taste of Chicago Taste of Chicago
01 — Live Production
Project Coordination & Keys
Jussoul — Taste of Chicago
Coordinated the full production for pop artist Jussoul's set at Taste of Chicago — one of the biggest free music festivals in the country. That meant handling communications with the City of Chicago, coordinating with the visual media company on site, generating stage plots and gear lists for the backline rental company, and managing the selection and hiring of a monitor engineer, rhythm guitarist, and DJ.

Oh, and I was also playing keyboards in the band the whole time. Simultaneously rehearsing a set and producing the logistics around it is a particular kind of chaos — the fun kind.
Project coordination
Keys / performance
Backline logistics
City of Chicago compliance
Talent hiring
Also —
WGN News
Jussoul — "Take Me Away"
Before Taste of Chicago, Jussoul performed live on WGN News. I was on keys. You can watch the full performance below.
Urinetown: The Musical
Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre — Jeff Award Nominated
The most technically involved project I've taken on. Theo Ubique is an intimate cabaret space where the actors move through the audience — which creates a specific and brutal engineering problem. Speakers need to cover the audience, but the actors are right next to those speakers with open mics, which means feedback is always one wrong decision away. The challenge wasn't volume. It was control.

I mixed several shows in the run and handled sound design for the production — designing the immersive environment from the ground up. I was also responsible for any post-production audio used in marketing materials. The overall sonic approach was developed in close collaboration with the Music Director: fewer mics, cleaner signal paths, amplified sound that didn't sound amplified.

Challenges included creating a genuinely "acoustic" feel through a PA, managing a tight rental budget, and learning theatrical production workflow on the job — fast.
"Someone please pass on my congratulations to the sound designer because I could hear every word clear as day and I know what a beast it is to make that happen in that room!"
— Christopher Pazdernik, Jeff Award-winning director & Managing Director, Season of Concern
Live mix engineering
Sound design
Immersive SFX
Marketing post-production
Budget management
Example mixes
Two tracks mixed and produced. 5eight is an original. Golden was recorded live at Navy Pier with Vic Luna.
5eight Demo
Harr Music
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Golden (Live @ Navy Pier)
Vic Luna
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Multi-instrumentalist.
All of them, actually.
Guitar was first. Then drums, trombone, piano, bass, keys. I don't play trumpet or saxophone yet — emphasis on yet. Every instrument I've picked up has made me a better engineer, because I understand what players need to actually perform.
Guitar
Electric + acoustic. Rock/metal focus. Solo composition. Alt. tuning experimentation.
Drums
Session drummer. Live experience in children's theatre. Dominican University performances.
Trombone
Chicago Symphony Center. Sheet music + improv solo.
Keys / Piano
Chord composition + songwriting. WGN News. Taste of Chicago.
Bass + Vocals
Jazz combo w/ Gustavo Cortiñas. "Legally Blonde" musical pit. Vocals for original production.
Rax Trax + home studio
Produced and tracked piano, guitar, bass, and drums for artists at Rax Trax. Started in production re-recording guitar tracks, and grew into full session work. Hosted local band rehearsals in a self-built home studio for years. Post-production mixing and mastering is where the engineering and the playing connect most directly.
Sound & Backline Rental
Three years running live sound for corporate events and festivals in spaces that weren't built for it — ballrooms, planetariums, waterfront stages. The clients are high-profile, the environments are unpredictable, and the work happens late. It taught me how to carry myself in rooms where audio is a detail, not the main event, and still make it sound like it was planned all along.
The Songwriters Association at Northwestern University
Contributed guitar solos to "DROWNIN" and "Right Connection" for The Songwriters Association at Northwestern University. Came in, played the part, and let the songs do the rest.
Bitter Jester Foundation
Multi-track recording for 10+ bands per night across two simultaneous stages. Figured out a smarter workflow that cut staffing needs in half. Fast, loud, repetitive, and exactly the kind of thing that builds real technical muscle.