I was a student at the Aspen Music Festival for four summers. I loved that place. I couldn't get enough of the mountains, the energy of my studio, lessons with my teacher Joaquin Valdepeñas, and the incredible music-making. During my first summer though, I placed 19th out of 25 in the screened placement auditions. I remember walking up to the posted results, scanning for my number, and walking away feeling completely disheartened. My first screened audition :( But as the festival went on,...

Hey Reader A couple of weeks ago I had the honor of being on the Fearless Artist Podcast, and having a terrific conversation with pianist and co-founder, Michelle Lynne. Some of you might remember her as 2025 guest speaker here at 360! Within the first few minutes, we were already into it deep. With our shared commitment to the success of music professionals, and knowing that there's often so much uncertainty and self-doubt, I wanted to share one powerful reminder. It's for ALL of us,...

Hey Reader Did you catch Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show? I'm not a big football fan, like, I only knew which teams were playing a few days ago. But the boys in my family love all the sportsball things, and so we do a hang every year on Super Bowl Sunday. It's really an excuse for Ted to make 2-3 kinds of chili. Anyway... Bad Bunny. He sent the powerful multilingual message of unity: "Together we are America". And addressing every viewer, was this line (in Spanish): "Mi nombre es Benito...