I grew up in the New York City and Philadelphia suburbs. The son of a Physicist, I was interested in math and shared my fathers enthusiasm for computers. In 1983, I received my B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics (SUNY-Albany) and landed a job at AT&T Bell Laboratories as a programmer and doing technical support. After earning a Master's degree in Computer Science (Columbia University) I became a researcher in the Signal Processing Research Department where I developed a novel video compression technique which was awarded a U. S. Patent.
Although listening to music has always been part of my life, it was during this time I became interested in synthesizers and took up playing piano, primarily Blues and Jazz.
After the birth of our first son, my family and I decided to move to Western Massachusetts to live in a less congested community. I took a job in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts " Amherst where I worked on an image matching system for U. S. Trademarks and became familiar with search engine technology.
In 1997, I began feeling pain in my right wrist. After consulting my Physician, I was back to work using the mouse with my left had. Six months later, I developed pain in my left wrist. The pain continued to increase despite seeing several specialists in the area and getting the usual regimen of therapy , splints, exercises, stretches and devices. Eventually, I ended up going to Connecticut and even New York City to see the big guns of Repetitive Stress Injuries. However, even they could not figure out how to help me.
Finally, after trying to work through the pain for over a year, I quit my job.
An astute Physical Therapist named Lisa Sattler eventually recommends the Alexander Technique for her patients who did not improve. I took a half a dozen lessons with Bill Connington in New York before needing to be with my family more. Bill recommended Missy Vineyard as a teacher in my area.
I continued to take weekly lessons with Missy over the next seven years, my arms improving dramatically over time.
I joined Missy's ATSNE Teacher Training Program in 2005 and graduated and became AMSAT certified in 2008.
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