I am thrilled to share with you my solo debut album, Mosaic, a project that I have been dreaming up for many years. Someone once told me a solo debut album should be a portrait of the artist – a musical image that displays who they are, where they are from, and why they do what they do. For me, that portrait is made up of many pieces, a Mosaic of experiences, stories, and sounds.

My musical career has been a bit of a roller coaster, shaped by a wide variety of musicians, genres, and experiences. Sharing the stage with the incredible musicians of the National Symphony and Opera Orchestras, playing for hundreds of thousands of people on national tours with Mexican norteño groups, and even performing for church services amidst many push-ups I did at the command of my Drill Sergeants while at U.S. Army Basic Combat Training, are just a few of the many experiences my instrument and I have shared. For my solo debut album, I aspired to capture this story in a single musical portrait.

Mosaic recounts this story through the multi-faceted voice of the saxophone. From Fernande Decruck’s stunningly captivating Sonata in C# for Alto Saxophone and Piano to Álvaro Carrillo’s romantic bolero Sabor a Mi, each individual track represents not only a small slice of my life, but yet another reason why I fell in love with this instrument. Glued together by my short compositions and improvisational interludes, the works jointly illustrate an image of my experiences and what I believe makes the saxophone so incredibly special.

Every musician involved in this project has my deepest admiration and gratitude. From colleagues I met during my studies at the University of Michigan to my collaborators serving alongside me in the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” I am honored to showcase this cast of world-class artists and their extraordinary dedication to this project.

I hope you, the listener, enjoy this project as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together. Whether you experience this portrait of sounds and stories as a whole or as individual pieces, I hope the music of Mosaic resonates with you as deeply as it does with me.