Where are you from?

I’m from Northern Virginia, outside of D.C. As far as college, I actually went [to Amherst]. The music department has a [program] where, as a senior, you can apply to stay for an extra year as a teaching assistant, which I applied for and got. That year here is actually what set me on my career path. Even at that point I didn’t know I was going to [teach] and I had my options open. [Working] with students and teaching just opened my eyes, and I said, “This is what I have to do. This is it.”

Why did you decide to come back to Amherst?

A lot of it was because my mentor, Jenny Kallick, contacted me and said, “Would you like to [be a visiting professor]?” She asked me a year after I moved to Texas and I had just started the job [there] and it was too early. So I said to get back to me in a couple years, and a couple years turned into a year and a half ago. So she invited me, and I said that this would work as far as the Texas thing, and everything fell into place.

What are you teaching this semester?

I’m teaching Music 32 [Form in Tonal Music] and Music 33 [Repertoire and Analysis].

Have you noticed any big changes since you went here?

Physically, walking around town — Amherst Cinema, that wasn’t there. Antonio’s, still here, thank God. The music majors seem different, more open-minded. Only one of my professors is still here, [Professor Kallick].

Have you eaten at Val since you got here?

What’s Val? Valentine? You call it Val now? We never ever called it Val. Yes, I have eaten there. And this is the funny thing: You know there’s cliques … there’s the field hockey team, and there’s the radio station, just those little crews. I looked around Valentine, and I could see the groups exactly like when I was here.

What do you bring to the department because of your background?

I don’t think it’s so much a Texas mentality, but it’s more like my field, which is music theory. They teach music theory courses, but they don’t have a scholar who is a music theorist. I do musicology and I do some composition. The class I’m teaching, 33, is a pure theory class [with] a lot of analysis. Whereas the other professor who has done the same thing in the class [taught with] more interpretation, more musicology — so what I’m bringing is a real hardcore theory angle.

So how is adjusting to the snow from Texas weather?

I got a little spoiled [by] Texas weather, [which is] great. Now that I’ve gotten here it’s not that bad, it’s like I just went back in time. I just forget and I wear shoes that aren’t right for the snow. I tried to get a [windshield scraper] and I couldn’t find any in Texas. I went to a Sears Auto Center — nothing. People [asked], “What is wrong with you? We [just] have squeegees.”