"I think every horn player wonders ‘am I good enough’. I was on the audition circuit pretty big and heavy for about a two year span, but I never advanced anywhere. So during that time I remember listening to a lot of the other people and thought, “Wow, am I ever going to make it?” That’s natural to think though, when you don’t advance and everyone else does. I knew all along that I had to be a musician, I just didn’t know what form that was going to take. I had to go on blind faith, I had believe in myself and that if I worked hard enough, did the right things day in and day out that eventually it’s meant to be. That’s really, really hard, but if you want to make it in the music industry, you just have to believe in yourself."

"I think it’s a common human value to want to help people. We naturally have empathy and don’t want to see other people in pain. We all want each other to be happy. I think appreciation of beauty is a common value for all people. That means different things for different people, but that’s part of what it is to be human. To be sensitive to being moved emotionally through our sensory experiences, to want to go out and watch the sunset, and decorate our cakes, these are all frivolous things that don’t help us survive, yet without them we’re not as happy. I think fear of death is a common human value (uh, that’s dark, sorry *laughter*.) I think it’s a motivator to try to squeeze the most you can out of the time that you have. It inspires a lot of fear of fucking up and fear in not being able to control our story, and I think that’s something a lot of people have in common. I think we all have passions, the things that we can’t not do, things that we can’t stop caring about. Most people are not lucky enough to say they can make a career totally out of their passions, because that’s not how life works, but everyone has them. Passion adds a lot of color to one’s life."

"I feel that with every day that goes by and with every experience I become stronger. Even looking at myself five years ago and I was totally different, truly an emotionally weaker person than I am now. Especially when I first moved here, with all these different people, different professors, different culture, different language, I was lost. I worried more about other people and what they thought, how they felt and I totally forgot about and neglected myself; I got lost in the midst of it all. Nowadays, I sometimes lay down and night and am really overwhelmed with school, relationships, etc, but, the next day I always put a smile on my face. In Bosnia we say, “novi dan, nova nafaka” which doesn’t really directly translate, but the meaning is like new day, new chance to change something. There is always a new day, so there are always chances for new dreams and new hopes."

"I'm very passionate about my family and friends on and off the horn, and I try to make sure my influences know that they are appreciated as much as possible. Life is too short to be questioning your worth. Personally, I’ve had a lot of issues with injury from overuse, and I’ve injured my chops more than once; the scariest one with the longest downfall by far was this year. In the past year or so, I’ve had persistent, relentless thoughts that everyone I play with would rather a different person play my part. It has also been difficult to truly feel like I’m really contributing to anything. But, I have a tremendous support system in my best friends and teachers: the ones that come to mind are Ben Bacni, Alex McCoy, Natalie Douglass, Liz Freimuth (Mom!), Tom Sherwood, Aaron Brant, and Randy Gardner. I also have to constantly remind myself to be patient, and in relation to feeling like I’m contributing something, I try to tell myself that sometimes just being physically present with a human is contributing because we never fully know what anyone needs. I also recently got a tattoo of the word that changed my life- “intent.” This helped me channel my nerves into something personal, calm the mind, and it’s more meaningful to me because one of my best friends, Ben, did the artwork.”

"Here in Sarajevo I think a lot of our colleagues have good perspective too because they’ve gone through more than we have. They care about more important things than a specific musical performance. Like what I was talking about earlier in regards to choosing music as a career as opposed to going into something more humanitarian, that’s what I like about playing music here in Sarajevo. I did my dissertation about the History of Classical Music in Sarajevo, and there was a huge cultural resistance during the siege; classical musicians were a very big part of that. The Sarajevska Filharmonija and classical music is kind of a symbol of intercultural collaboration and peace here and it’s cool to be a part of it. To know that I’m part of an orchestra that represents something higher than myself as a musician and music itself is really humbling."