Sean-David recalls reading Effortless Mastery years ago when Kenny Werner first wrote it and visited Berklee College of Music to speak on the ideas within it. He began thinking about what it might look like to involve meditation as a practice in music.
Nearly fifteen years later Sean-David sat down again to revisit Effortless Mastery and other books like it and wondered— what would it look like if musicians were to make meditation a regular part of their craft, yet not a meditation that borrows from Eastern mysticism, but rather a meditation that focuses on substantial truth? What if musicians were to employ meditation in their life and music that mattered, and that would make a difference?
A graduate of Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA), Sean-David studied jazz composition and performance with jazz greats like Phil Wilson, Greg Hopkins, Jeff Stout, Lin Biviano, and Hal Crook. He also holds a Master of Arts in Religion with an emphasis on Worship and the theology of worship, as well as a Master of Divinity from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Sean-David is currently working on his doctorate with Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
Sean-David has taught and played trumpet professionally for many years, as well as having served for six years in the U.S. Army Bands. In 2000 Sean-David composed, performed, and produced his debut recording as a musician, 180 Degrees, with his wife, singer/songwriter Jenna. He is always playing and writing new music; often writing corporate worship music for the local church, and plays in and around the community.
As an educator, Sean-David has taught for Carl Albert State College and currently teaches world religions, Spiritual Formation, and Bible for several different colleges and universities including John Brown and Azusa Pacific University. He also recently created and taught a course on The History of America’s Greatest Art Form: Jazz, Orchestral, and Stage (pictured above).
Tuned In is a book for musicians and artists who seek not just to create art, but to be tuned in better to both the Creator and community, because who we are as musicians and who we are as people cannot be separated.
