As the head of the Fine Arts Department, I oversee a comprehensive K-12 music, art and drama program involving over 75% of our full student body. As music director, I am responsible for directing the middle and upper school music ensembles and leading worship for contemporary chapel services weekly. In the instrumental program, there are several ensembles offered including the 4th Grade Band, 5th Grade Band, Symphonic Band, Pep Band, and the Eagles Jazz Band. In the choral program, three ensembles are offered including the lower school, middle school, and upper school choruses. Selected students are also involved in worship arts through multimedia presentation, sound mixing and participating in the school praise band. Various private lesson and camp opportunities are offered through out the year outside of the normal school schedule. The HHCA Fine Arts Department is making a great impact on the communities of Hilton Head and Bluffton!

I proudly serve as the artistic director and founder of the Hilton Head Jazz Camp based in Hilton Head, SC. The Hilton Head Jazz Camp attracts middle and high school students from across the region for a week of intense immersion in the American art form of jazz. We have an incredible faculty made up of professional jazz educators and musicians in the Southeast. Students get to experience masterclasses, combos, big band, private lessons, and classes in theory, composition and improv. Last year, our finale concert attracted over 300 guests as our students performed a variety of standards and original compositions. Students also experience a variety of fun activities including a beach day, BBQ dinner, faculty recital and a trip to a real jazz club. Visit us online at hhjazzcamp.com to find out more information!

Pianist / Accompanist, Trumpet PlayerAs a freelance musician in the Hilton Head and Bluffton Area, I have performed for organizations including the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Hilton Head Chamber Music Society, and Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. I have also performed at various venues around the area including the Jazz Corner, Vine, 843, Ela's Grill, and Corner Perk. I am available for weddings (on piano or trumpet), accompanying, or background jazz for your special event. Rates are reasonable. Call 843.290.7916 or e-mail james@hhjazzcamp.com if you are interested in booking.

Initially conceived in 2003 on a trip to Peaks Island, Maine, co-founders James Berry and David Page came up with the idea of developing a website to produce online music lesson videos known as ilearnmusic.com. This was before the days of Youtube, Facebook, and Web 2.0, however Mr. Berry and Mr. Page were not seeking to become the next young dot-com millionaires. The vision for the site has always been to offer accessible and free music education content organized in a clear and concise manner. This became a popular idea and ilearnmusic.com grew to a website visited by over 120 countries worldwide, and an average of 900 unique visitors daily. As bandwidth and the rest of the Internet world caught up with the idea of online videos, websites such as YouTube or Google Video allowed users to post videos on their sites for free and host the storage for these videos. In April 2006, our first original piano lesson video was produced as a graduate project - available at youtube.com/bearnotchstudios. Also at the same time, ilearnmusic.com began to attract more visitors and we gathered other instructional videos from YouTube and other video sources. This aspect became very successful in promoting the site, as the piano videos alone have been viewed over 1.5 million times to this day. With subscribers clamoring for more lesson videos, the Piano Request series began in 2009, along with several other videos in the pipeline. Over the past few years, the concept has been rebranded as 'Bear Notch Studios' and Bear Notch Studios is now broadened to a multi-faceted creative business offering private music lessons, voiceover and session work, video editing and original artistic content. Originally founded in 2003 in New Hampshire, it is now based in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

I served as the graduate ssistant to the director of Choral Studies, directed Vox Angelis (women's chorale), University Singers and assistant conducted the top choral ensemble Meistersingers. I also spent a significant amount of time working on jazz research, piano pedagogy/performance and private instruction. I founded an original jazz quartet (The Greenbelt Jazz Quartet), performed with the Boise State Orchestra as a featured soloist and completed the requirements for a Masters degree in piano performance.