Fifty one years ago when I was 9, I told my dad that I wanted to "blow a horn". I was intrigued by such musicians as Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. But he bought me a Conn Alto Eb sax, and I was heart broke. But I played it in school for the next 5 years, but by then I had also picked-up the acoustic guitar and piano. In 1998 a table saw injury took all 5 digits on my right hand, so there went playing anything that I knew. Then in June of 2000 a scaffolding accident shattered my right leg and hurt my back, so after 5 years of procedures, I went into early retirement. Suddenly I had all the time in the world to do something, as long as it wasn't playing an instrument, so I went into composing. It has opened a whole new world of opportunity for me, as well as giving me a way to interact with instruments. I have composed about a dozen works, but I am just now doing a serious study in theory, instrumentation and composition. That is why I am a composer!
Jeremiah H.R. Wells
updated 2016