Cello. Music Performance, James Madison University. BJ began playing the violin in the 5th grade in Virginia Beach. He went on to study at James Madison University as a music education and cello performance major. In addition to his cello studies, he also studied violin and voice for four years. BJ began his teaching career during college in 2007 at Shenandoah Academy High School and Elementary school where he taught private lessons and started a strings program, while also keeping up a private violin and cello studio in the Shenandoah Valley. After James Madison University he taught chorus and private violin lessons, at Bronx Academy High School in New York City. BJ has performed in various places nationally as well as internationally in China and Greece. He attended the Bay View Music Conservatory is Petoskey, MI for 4 years and has been a guest artist at different music festivals on the east coast and the mid-west. After college BJ became faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan where he taught lessons, coached sectionals, and performed in faculty recitals. While at Interlochen he explored singing and playing cello at the same time and debuted as a singing cellist with a world premiere at a faculty composers recital in 2011. Since then, BJ has been teaching, guest conducting and performing in the Tidewater area. He returned to his home city having been a guest conductor for All City Orchestra in Virginia Beach, adjudicating for district assessments and giving clinics and lectures in Virginia Beach schools as well as other school in the surrounding areas. In addition to his active performance schedule, as faculty with the Academy of Music BJ has a private studio and teaches at the Park View Music Program at Park View Elementary school in Portsmouth, Va. As a singing cellist, BJ hopes to expand the boundaries of classically trained musicians to a broader audience with even more possibilities to spread the joy of music.
