I’m from Austin, TX and grew up in a musical house where both of my parents play music. My father teaches Jazz Piano at TX State University and my mom plays and reads piano music. I attended music classes as a child starting from age 4-5 with a piano focus and continued through K-12 where I also played violin and guitar in public school. In 2015 I bought a keyboard and started practicing piano with a focus on jazz and understanding expression.

Throughout the years I’ve had various long-term teachers: my father, Jeff Hellmer, Robert Skiles, Craig Nazor, and Sophia Gilmson. I attended UT Austin for a degree in Jazz Piano Performance. I also take one-off lessons from musicians I look up to like Benny Green, Nitai Hershkovits, and Or Baréquette.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing with many musicians in Austin, TX and a few from out of town. Many musicians I look(ed) up to from a younger age as local legends. I’m glad to call most of them good friends.

I thoroughly love bop. Parker’s “One Night In Birdland” is a highlight of the world for me. Brad Mehldau’s “Live at Smalls 1994” bootleg and Kurt Rosenwinkel’s “Live in Paris Sunset-Sunside“ youtube recordings are some of my favorite performances in existence. I like to imagine the act of making music through different metaphors and these recordings seem to exemplify that to me.

As I get older my performances have changed into introspective experiences of myself. When Mary-Lou Williams wrote “Anything you are shows up in your music - jazz is whatever you are, playing yourself, being yourself, letting your thoughts come through,” I understand that to be the truth. Which is extremely cool. My study of classic music, the theory behind it, reasons behind it, historical situations leading to it, are all in the expressed interest of understanding what it is. My writing is ultimately freedom for the sake of myself and what I assume to be the benefit of the listener.