It’s all about the stories.

Aaron studied voice, piano, violin, and trumpet through high school, where he took up guitar, playing various coffee shop gigs. In College, he studied music across three universities, earning a bachelor’s in music composition from Bowling Green State and then a master’s degree from the UMKC Conservatory of Music. While in college and beyond, he participated in many ensembles, singing baritone in various choirs, including the Kansas City Symphonic Chorus, playing trumpet in jazz bands, and playing horn in various orchestras. He also appeared on stage in roles such as Kurt in The Sound of Music, Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables, and many others.

In 2018, he started playing in pit orchestras and music directed his first production, Sweeney Todd, in 2019. When the pandemic shut down theatres, he wrote and produced a few shows for Zoom actors and put together a few virtual choirs to keep making music and telling stories.

Musical theatre is the apex of storytelling because it combines the transient collective experience of live theatre with the potency of music. Music gives structure to the stories in a way that music-less plays can’t. Music gives a character more material to explore their problems and desires. Aaron’s love of musical theatre is based on that exploration. Music direction lives in the intersection of the composer’s intent, the director’s vision, and the actor’s character development. With a depth of experience making music of all kinds of storytelling, Aaron is perfectly suited to tease out the stories that make theatre magical.