Hello, I'm Mr. McKnight!
I was born in Evanston, IL , and moved around a bit until I landed in Appleton, WI when I was 10 years old. I went to St. Joe's middle school, then Xavier High School. In 2009, I graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN with a degree in music education. I'm also taking classes at VanderCook College of Music and will graduate with a Masters Degree in music education in 2014.
My music!
I got hooked on music pretty early in life. I joined band in the middle of 4th grade and started playing tuba. In high school, I started taking bass lessons and played in my top high school jazz ensemble as well as my own rock band! One of my favorite experiences playing music was being in the cast of the fall musicals. I was a flying monkey in The Wiz, the head waiter in Hello Dolly!, the crazy dentist in Little Shop of Horrors, and Simeon in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
I've also played music in some pretty cool places like: the Fox Cities PAC, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Symphony Center in Chicago, Miller Park in Milwaukee, and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, China.
I've also played music in some pretty cool places like: the Fox Cities PAC, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Symphony Center in Chicago, Miller Park in Milwaukee, and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, China.
Being a music teacher, you have to know a lot of instruments, but I'm always looking for new things to learn! About ten years ago, I started to teach myself how to play guitar, and last December I got a ukulele, and am trying to figure that out too!
My Life!
If there's anything that I love more than music (there isn't)...it's traveling and baseball! I've been a Cubs fan since I was born and I still try to catch every game I can in person or on TV. I've been to Wrigley Field many times and also like to go to Target Field to watch the Twins (my second favorite team).
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I also love to travel, and being involved in music has given me many travel opportunities that I would have never had with out it!
As a member of my high school band, we spent a week in Hawaii! -- we went to Oahu, Maui and I got to visit Pearl Harbor I sang in choir for two years in college and we took a trip to Italy! -- we went to Rome, Vatican City, Assisi, Florence, and Venice In 2008 my college band took a 10 day trip to China! -- we visited Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai |
if i wasn't a music teacher...
People ask me all the time, "What would you do if you didn't teach music?" Well, I've really never wanted to do anything else, but if I had to choose something...I would do something that has to do with astronomy or cosmology. I love space exploration and the science behind how the universe works...maybe I'd be an astronaut!