Voice-Actor
Vocalist
Taking A Chance
One hot southern summer afternoon my wife came to me with an idea. For the first time in a long time, I decided to take a chance; a chance on myself, a chance on my talent and vulnerability.
Music has been a part of my life since my family moved to a small, country town in Wisconsin. Being from the Bronx, the move was a bit of a culture shock for my adolescence but by junior high I had found something to pour myself into: music. Choir, school band, and musicals became my focus throughout the challenging years called ‘growing up.’
Unbeknownst to me, my teachers ran me through some rudimentary musical aptitude tests and in high school my scores attracted the attention of college and university bands. I received an offer to tour with a particular college program but declined after my vocal teacher (one of my greatest musical motivators) advised me to focus on learning and mastering my skills instead.
To this day I am glad I rejected the offer and I think it was the right choice. It would be several years before I took a real chance on my musical ability, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
Studying at Bob Jones University, I continued learning and attracting the attention of programs generally ahead of my age group. As a freshman I was accepted into the junior/senior level choir, which was unheard of.
I graduated with a degree in musical education and for nearly the next decade my only focus was teaching. I settled into a rhythm those years that offered a comforting sense of stability.
Then, in 2018, my wife stumbled across a local music competition called Greer Idol. The idea sounded ridiculous at first. $1,000 grand prize would surely attract better vocalists than myself.
But after thinking it over, I realized that there really was no worst-case scenario. If I lost, things would simply go back to normal. I decided to enter my name.
From the first week of competition, I knew I was going to have to lay everything on the line if I wanted a chance at winning. I had to fully commit to learning, adapting, and competing.
At that point I was only classically trained and my competitors brought countless skills unfamiliar to me like stage presence, soloing, etc.
Over the course of the competition I continually broke out of my comfort zone honing new skills. To my own disbelief, I won the competition and received the $1,000 grand prize.
The prize money was great, but so many more unexpected things came out of taking a chance on myself.
Before Greer Idol I was not the type of person to take such chances. Music had naturally offered me opportunities many times before, but I only took the ones that seemed like a safe bet.
TMoAudio is the result of those exterior opportunities that have presented themselves to me since that summer in 2018 and making a commitment to betting on myself and my talent even in areas unfamiliar to me.
Feel free to have a look at the Voice-over page to learn more about my voice-over skills, particularly the audiobook section.