I began hitting things to make sound when I was 3. I quickly progressed to a box attached to a yardstick, with a nifty little bench my dad made me. Every now and then, as I grew, my dad would re-adjust the bench a little higher. Before we knew it, I was sitting in a grown-up chair, playing a grown-up cello.
I learned how to play classical music (even though I listened to my dad's old rock records, and loved to sing along to Bow Wow Wow). I realized I didn't want to be in an orchestra. I decided to go to a liberal arts school (Sarah Lawrence College). I almost decided to go to law school and at the last minute applied to the California Institute of the Arts. I focused on contemporary classical music, North Indian classical music, Persian classical music, and improvisation. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do.
Tours, live shows, and recording with bands of various stripes followed: Rachael Yamagata, Rilo Kiley, Joshua Radin, Matt Jones, Misty Lyn, Chris Bathgate, Jim Roll, Drafted By Minotaurs, Josh Groban, and most recently Jens Lekman.
When I grow up, I plan on becoming a chef. Or maybe an assassin. For now, though, it's the cello...
