About Me
I'm not the best at these online profiles. But here's part of the story///// During the middle of my time in college studying the French horn, I spent a rainy afternoon inside the Carnegie Music Hall (Pittsburgh) in a recording session of Mozart's charming Sinfonia concertante in E-flat for Winds./////After 8 hours, though, fatigue set in. I was never a natural horn player, but I worked hard because I loved the sound of the instrument. /////Something was missing though. In recent days I was spending more time geeking out about music history. I'd been lucky to have found some amazing professors in the art department who taught critial theory and interdisciplinary studies (thank you Steven Kurtz). My interest in the arts was growing in several directions, and, so it seemed, the practice rooms and were getting smaller./////Several doors had been opened for me ever since I took up the horn in 5th grade in Omaha, Nebraska. I liked band. I liked marching band even better (full disclosure). Then orchestra. Once you get immersed in the orchestra as a horn player you are at the mercy of your chops, and for the most part, you dwell in 18th & 19th century repertoire. /////Don't get me wrong. Playing Mahler, Brahms and Beethoven are a life-changing and transformative moments. I couldn't quite understand, though, how this related to my life in 20th century socitey. /////So - let's go back to that day in Pittsburgh - recording session is over for the day, it's rainy and I'm standing on the corner waiting to cross the street. A bus roars by in Tide commercial style, soaking my jeans with street spray. The sound of the bus had such an impact on me. It was a sound that was rather brutal in the moment. Sonically amazing, connected to that moment in time. I understood why John Cage opened the doors of concert halls to, letting those sounds seep in as the concert itself. ////
