Personal Info

Brief Bio

For my professional bio info, check my CV (pdf file). This one is just personal trivia.

I'm a proud Texan by birth, raised in beautiful Austin. If you haven't been, visit sometime. Tons to do, lots of great food, lots of high-tech hippie folk, and the title "Live Music Capital of the World" is well-deserved.

Besides Texas, Arizona, Maryland, and now Illinois, I lived in Würzburg, Germany for a few months. It's a gorgeous town in the heart of Franken, sometimes anglicized as Franconia. If you ever see some Frankenwein (Franconian wine), usually in the distinctive roundish Bocksbeutel, try it. It's fabulous. My favorite variety is the Silvaner, which is really really dry, and far too drinkable. Here's a little English-language site for some info. It's darn hard to come by in the States, so if you happen to find some, pick it up!

I have a fair amount of training as a teacher and conductor (though it's been a while...), but my primary instrument is the tuba. If your first reaction is to think of the tuba as more of a noisemaker than a legitimate musical instrument, think again. Pick up a CD with Roger Bobo, Harvey Phillips, Eugene Pokorny, Sam Pilafian, Patrick Sheridan, Daniel Perantoni, or any number of other good tubists. Read "Song and Wind" by Arnold Jacobs. If you still think the tuba is just a noisemaker, then I'm afraid your musical taste has been strangled by a rigid resistance to different flavors of sound. My condolences.

One of my major accomplishments in life was playing some tuba duets with my good friend Jon Bohrer (on the left) on top of Quandary Peak, the 13th tallest peak in Colorado, at 14,265 ft. Yes, we hiked our tubas up there ourselves! The scary part was climbing down, because a thunder storm had rolled in, and there we were, way above treeline, with huge chunks of exposed metal strapped to our backs... but we survived, and had successfully brought tuba music where it had never been before. After spending too much time away from the tuba, I'm getting back into it. If I ever get a recording of myself that sounds decent, I'll try to post some of it here. I've also done some transcription of German art songs for tuba (Mahler & Brahms), which I think work great and are fun to play. If I ever get the software, I'll post some of my transcriptions.

But the most important things in my personal life are clearly my family, including my wife Heather, daughters Cora and Daphne, and dog Schatzi. See below for pictures, etc.

Pictures

• Here's an old picture from when I was a senior in high school, from 1994. It just looks like the '70s.
• Here's what I look like now, more or less. (somewhat more than I was in high school...) The cutie pie in the picture is my daughter, Cora.
• Here's that picture of me and my friend Jon playing tuba duets on Quandary Peak, in case you didn't click the link above
• Here's a picture of my lovely wife Heather, who is a genius of many talents. Visit Her own website, if you'd like.
• A great picture of Cora as a flower girl, with her hair curled.
• Another one
• A more typical expression on Cora's face, along with our fantastic dog, Schatzi.
• A picture of Cora, posing with her new baby sister, Daphne.
• A picture of Cora & Daphne from this past summer.
• Here's a more recent picture of Cora and Daphne.
• Schatzi, with a hat.

Last updated: October 27th, 2008