A talented violinist, he attended the National Music Camp and graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan in 1970, where he majored in composition.
He then moved to New York City, where he was a composition student of Elliott Carter at The Juilliard School.
Discouraged by his progress and fascinated by the cultural and social upheavals going on in New York at the time, he discontinued his composition studies, eventually enrolling at Hunter College.
He had a promising career as a filmmaker, but died in New York City from AIDS complications.
He is best known for his 1986 film Parting Glances, made for $310,000, a bittersweet romantic comedy that spans a 24-hour period in the upwardly mobile New York gay community.