Hello! I am a Pittsburgh based composer and multi-instrumentalist. Currently, I’m pursuing my Bachelor of Music Composition degree at Temple University. The music I write is constantly changing style. I started with writing folk songs, then I wrote more heavy stuff for bands I was in, then I shifted to a more ambient sound experimenting with soundscapes. Now, I’m in an almost exclusively electronic territory, making meditative ambient, as well as dance/club/hyperpop, but still dabbling with my folk roots.

A fun fact about me is that I cannot stop learning new instruments! The ones I continue to practice are piano, guitar, voice, saxophone, and didgeridoo (an Aboriginal wind instrument.) I think of instruments as different lenses, and I’m always craving a fuller picture of this magical thing we call music. What a singer knows about music can be so beautifully different from a bassist for example, but capturing both perspectives at once is so alluring. It has allowed me to play in a wide array of ensembles, such as jazz combos, rock bands, marching band, theater pits, orchestras, baroque ensembles, electronic ensembles, and choirs.

In teaching, I aim to hone a select few aspects of a student’s musicianship while giving them the tools to explore music freely. I think students should be free to experiment with techniques and styles on a whim as long as core elements of their practice remain healthy.

When did you begin playing Piano, and why?

I began playing piano at age 3 or 4. I remember seeing my older brother (8 at the time) play piano and I knew I needed to be doing whatever he was doing. When he would practice, I would climb onto the bench and improvise on either side of him. I eventually got proper lessons (classical and then jazz/R&B) and haven’t stopped playing since.

What other instruments do you play, and what is your experience with them?

I also play guitar, alto & tenor saxophone, voice, and didgeridoo. I have been playing guitar for 5 years, focusing mostly on folk and rock, and then had jazz training for a year. I have played in multiple bands/pits/ensembles on guitar. I have been playing saxophone for 6 years, all self-taught for school band. Now I use it in my compositions and play with friends. I have been singing with training for 7 years, having sung in bands and in theater productions. I have only been playing didgeridoo for a year, but I am quite good at it.

What are your personal goals as a musician?

I want to express myself and share how I see the world. Music is special because it can reach both ends of the attention spectrum. You can listen to a song with the same intensity as prey listening for predators. But it can also target the most subliminal parts of our minds. Ignorable, ambient music is just as powerful, so I really enjoy playing with that spectrum of attention in my music.

Do you have a memory of a time when a musical concept or technique really clicked?  Something you’ll remember forever?

This is quite vague but making ambient music. In the best way possible, it shattered everything that I knew about how I write music. Ever since my first go at it, my perspective of structure, harmony, and melody are completely reborn. It is one of my favorite things to do now, even though it was such a conceptual struggle for me at first.

What is your favorite piece of advice from one of your past (or current) teachers?

Inspiration is a fickle thing. You can’t wait for it to do something creative. Inspiration only finds you while working.

What was your most challenging moment learning an instrument?

In the same week, I had to learn an entire musical’s worth of music on guitar, while also learning ≈15 jazz standards for a gig. Also, this was my first jazz gig, and I had no idea how to play in a jazz combo or anything related to playing jazz. This was a major learning experience for me because I had to figure out how to practice efficiently and effectively. I had to be hard on myself to learn all the music and have it under my fingers in such a short time frame. I feel like this was my first taste of being a professional musician – in the sense that rigorous practicing was going towards something, not just for the sake of getting better.

What is your biggest musical achievement?

I wrote a piece last year for a saxophone quartet and voices. The gimmick was that the voices had no sheet music. Their job was just to listen to the saxophones, and whenever they heard a note that stuck out to them, (could be because of volume, a mistake, a peak in a melody, etc.) they would match the pitch until they ran out of breath. That repeats for the duration of the piece. The whole goal was to let “non-musicians” participate in live music because I find it such a privilege to do so. It turned out to be a major success. Some of my friends who have never been on a stage or touched an instrument sung under my baton and it was unanimously praised by performers and audience.

Favorite thing about teaching?

By allowing the student to play and experiment, they can find a unique angle of understanding that only they could discover for themselves. By witnessing their distinct natural process, it allows for previously shut off pathways in my own head to reopen.

What is a piece of advice you would like to share with anyone learning music?

For so many reasons: see as much live music as possible. You are interacting with a community. You can see performer’s flaws. Art is made for its medium, so recordings are different than clips on social media is different than live in person. Inspiration is a very fickle thing, but seeing live music is a sure-fire way to get inspired.

Personal music projects:

My YouTube Channel, Eli Wynn, has some cool performances of my compositions.