I was born in LaGrange, Illinois on April 29^th, 1968. My first musical training was on cornet. I dabbled at the out-of-tune upright piano at home, somehow learning the bass clef. The painful combination of orthodontics and the mandatory marching band in high school made me put down the brass instruments and join the choir. I also began to take the piano seriously. I began writing music in 1984, just after my family moved to Southern California. Allured by the fame and fortune musicians can achieve through pop music, I purchased a synthesizer and joined a rock band in '85. Upon attending the University of California at Irvine in '86, I took music theory courses in order to better my song writing. Over the next five years, I would shift my allegiance to classical music. In '91, my first composition teacher, Peter Odegard, introduced me to two pieces in the same hour: Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, and from then on I would love contemporary classical music and began to emulate those masters. In the next two years I would study with composers Bernard Gilmore, Zelman Bokser and James W. Newton at Irvine while completing my Master's degree. I married my wife, Jennifer, during that time.

I would accept a generous offer from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts to pursue a doctorate; Jennifer and I would move 3000 miles in '94. I studied composition with Martin Boykan, Yehudi Wyner and David Rakowski, and piano with David Kopp. I completed my dissertation in '99 on the music of Mel Powell (his Piano Trio '94) as well as my own Piano Trio no.1. Along the way I would TA nearly every class in the department, organize the new music concerts, conduct my first piece, and organize a memorial concert for Mel Powell.

Since graduating, I have taught classes in a dozen music subjects (mostly music theory) at Harvard University, Providence College, Worcester State College, Brandeis, Boston University and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (where I am currently.) I have garnered some accolades, including: Alea III International Composition Competition Finalist, Aaron Copland Award (Copland House residency), Massachusetts Music Teachers Association, SCI Student Commission, and a California Octagon Prize. I've had my music performed at the Wellesley Composers' Conference, May in Miami and several SCI conferences, and by ensembles including Auros Group for New Music, Speculum Musicae, the Radius Ensemble and the Kesatuan Duo. My music has been commercially recorded on Centaur Records, Albany Records and Nine Winds Records.

In May of '05 my wife would do most of the work in a collaboration we named Allison Claire Melbinger. Nathan Edward Melbinger arrived in July of '07. My non-musical interests include cooking and philosophy. I stand in awe of humanity's great works of art and technology as well as natures' great works: evolution and biodiversity.