Instrument(s): Accordion, Banjo, Bass Guitar, Composition, Drums, Guitar, Organ, Piano, Ukulele
City: Seattle
Tristan is an ever expanding, ever evolving guitarist, composer, and music technologist, specializing in rock, pop, jazz, metal, and improvisational music, as well as instruction on piano, banjo, sitar, and accordion. Tristan attended the Orange County School of the arts and pursued jazz guitar in the after-school conservatory. There, he played in bands, and wrote music for jazz big bands and orchestra. He the winner of the Louis Armstrong award for best soloist in the Garnes Family Jazz program, as well as winning the Grand Prize Azusa Pacific Youth Jazz Composition.
Tristan went on to attend the University of Southern California (USC) to pursue a BM in composition and a minor in Jazz guitar, where he studied theory, counterpoint, orchestration, and conducting, as well as wrote chamber music, electroacoustic works, and orchestra pieces that were played by the Thornton Symphony. He has had pieces played and premiered in venues in Los Angeles, theaters in New York, cathedrals in San Francisco, concert halls in Slovenia and Ukraine. He has studied with Vince Mendoza, concert band titan Frank Ticheli, and Pulitzer Prize finalists Ted Hearne and Andrew Norman.
Tristan studied guitar with renowned educators Bruce Forman and Frank Potenza. This rich ensemble of teachers gave me a wide and varied perspective that has shaped me into the unique musician he is today. He has accolades from Steve Vai, guitarist extraordinaire, and and acclaimed Saxophonist David Binney saying "Your music is always unique, interesting, and you play the heck out of the guitar!"
Outside of Music, Tristan runs competitively, specializing in the nexus of endurance and speed that is the 800 meters. He also likes to adventure on his bike, having ridden across the United States, as well as sail with his brother, having sailed down the West Coast of the United States as well as the entire length of the Sea of Cortez.