As Seraphone’s Founder and Managing Director, Don is responsible for leading and managing Seraphone’s original music production for clients and for overseeing our relationships with major film and television studios, broadcast networks, production companies, advertising agencies and with talent agencies and their artists.  Over the course of his career, Don has worked with some of the world's most highly regarded media companies and their respective creative and executive leadership teams.  Don began his career in New York City at the world headquarters for GREY Advertising, one of the industry's most highly regarded advertising agency brands operating in close to one hundred countries.  At GREY Advertising, Don was immediately thrown into the fire to work on television campaigns for some of the world's most iconic brands.  Of curious note, the custom music that Don used for one of the country's most legendary brands was credited with reviving the brand and inspiring similar styles of music for other brands targeting the same demographic audience.  Eventually, Don was recruited from GREY Advertising to McCann New York whose flagship office was quite literally across the street from GREY.  For perspective, many consider McCann to be the world’s leading global advertising agency brand with offices in more than 120 countries, and highly regarded for its award-winning creative work at Cannes and elsewhere.  While on an accelerated track at McCann, Don was responsible for helping to lead the creative and production work for a number of McCann’s premier global clients, most notably for AT&T.  Following his time at McCann, Don was personally selected by WPP founder and CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell, to work on a number of initiatives for London-based WPP plc., the world’s largest advertising company.

Most central to Don’s professional journey is his profound understanding of the vitally important role music and sound design has on the overall storytelling experience. He brings a disciplined, classical sensibility to modern composition, often incorporating various forms of synthesis and electro-acoustic techniques.  His professional experience has also taught him the importance of being open to unconventional approaches to original music composition to drive emotional connection (just ask him about his role in the creation of the first ever original hip-hop song that was used for a major national television campaign to great success).   To truly understand Don’s approach to music composition, it is essential to appreciate the journey he took to arrive at where he is today.  Don’s musical journey began when he was just six years old, initially studying classical violin before moving into other string instruments and various forms of electronic synthesis.  However, Don’s understanding of how to apply complex, yet nuanced approaches to music composition occurred only after he was introduced to his friend and mentor, and 8-time Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Niles Symphony Orchestra, the late Rev. Stanley Rudcki.  ​ For perspective, the Niles Symphony Orchestra was established by Stan Rudcki and the American Federation of Musician’s Trust Fund to provide access to world-class symphonic music for members of underserved communities in Chicago and was comprised of musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Just about everything that Don has learned about composition, orchestration, and the underappreciated aspects of blending the various orchestral voices, he learned under the direction of Stan Rudcki.