About Jake

Jake is an American-born clarinetist and composer from North Carolina with roots in Peru, Italy, and Hungary. He graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2026 with degrees in music, statistics, and urban planning. In fall 2026, he will start a transportation engineering master’s at the University of California, Berkeley. Alongside pursuing a career in transportation, he plans to remain an active composer, performer, and teacher.

Clarinet at UNC: Jake studied clarinet under three magnificent professors: Donald Oehler, David Allen, and Sara Aratake. He performed Max Bruch’s Duo Concerto for Clarinet and Viola with violist Natalie Druffner in the UNC Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 concerto competition winner’s concert. He frequently performed with Natalie Druffner in a trio with pianist Camilla Fratta. Jake also regularly performed on soprano, E♭, bass, and alto clarinets as well as the marching cymbals across UNC’s wind ensemble, orchestra, marching band, and special small ensembles. Jake’s final performance at UNC was his senior recital, “Autoethnographic”, which explored his multicultural heritage.

Composition at UNC: Jake studied composition under three active composers: Lee Weisert, Stephen Anderson, and Allen Anderson. Under their guidance, Jake advanced his skills in film scoring, videogame scoring, improvisatory composition, and harmonic development. In 2026, UNC’s wind ensemble performed an arrangement of Test Drive from the animated film How to Train Your Dragon that Jake and saxophonist Michael Chen wrote for the ensemble.

Academics at UNC: Jake double majored in statistics and music and completed a minor in urban planning. He took advantage of many graduate-level classes to specialize in optimizing large-scale transportation problems and advancing the mathematical theories of both transportation algorithms and human behavior. Jake’s most notable research project was analytical transportation research conducted with Dr. Matthew Palm and the Central Pines Regional Council, which he presented at the Transportation Research Board 2025 Annual Meeting.

Final notes: The music painting at the bottom of this page and on Jake’s YouTube profile was created by his friend and graphic designer Sara Abell as a birthday gift many years ago. Many photography and videography credits to Blythe Klayner, Ruide Fu, Paola Csirke-Juliano, and Jorgre Csirke.