Sean’s students have been admitted to composition programs at every Ivy League university and routinely go on to top programs including Juilliard, Eastman, USC, UCLA, University of Michigan, Indiana University, Oberlin, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music, CalArts, Cleveland Institute of Music, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, the Royal College of Music, and many others.

Sean is Chair of Composition at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. A Rome Prize winner, he was formerly Assistant Professor of Practice in Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music and Lecturer of Composition at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He also directs the Sunset Chamber Fest Young Composers Workshop in Los Angeles, is Composition Mentor in Residence at the Soundbox Fellowship Program in Sarasota and Shanghai, and is Guest Senior Composer in Residence at the Chamber Music and Composers Conference of the East.

Private Composition Lessons

I teach private lessons online and in person to an international roster of students, from high school-aged composers to professional adults working in classical music, film, pop, and beyond. I work with students of all stylistic inclinations and encourage composers to lead with their strengths and to feel confident in allowing their personality, interests, and even eccentricities to come through in their music. While composition requires rigor and well-developed technique, it should also be fun, expressive, and exploratory. I firmly believe this approach best prepares artists to have healthy, purposeful, and sustainable careers in which they are primed to have an impact on the world they are entering.

• Acoustic Composition & Orchestration: Concert music, chamber works, and writing for traditional instruments.

• Score Study and Advanced Analysis: Deep dive study of relevant repertoire and analytical approaches.

• Modern Production & Mockups: Working in DAWs like Logic Pro, making high-quality mockups with modern sample libraries, and mixing.

• Professional Engraving: Score preparation and formatting.

Composition Portfolio & College Admissions Advising

Sean also offers specialized advising for composers applying to undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as summer festivals and composition competitions. Drawing on his extensive teaching and administrative experience as a faculty member at three major music schools, his service on high-level competition juries including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and his deep familiarity with what top programs seek in applicants, he provides high-level feedback on compositional work alongside practical guidance on portfolio preparation, program selection, and application strategy. This is available as a standalone service or in combination with ongoing lessons. In particular, Sean focuses on:

• Portfolio Curation: Selecting the appropriate mixture of works for each application.

• Program Selection: Matching the student's interests with the right university faculty.

• Interview Prep: Navigating faculty interviews, admissions requirements, scholarship negotiations, and more.