What age did you start playing music?
I started playing music long before I started studying it. Music was integral in our household. My mother taught piano, and my place as a toddler while she was teaching was under the piano. We also had a pump organ that you had to pump two pedals with your feet to blow air over reeds. I wrote my first piece of music on that instrument at the age of six. In fourth grade we were given the opportunity to learn string instruments. I wanted to play drums, but band instruments weren’t introduced to students until the fifth grade. I figured I’d learn bass for a year then switch. Within the first few months the fire was lit. In fifth and sixth grade, I walked over to the middle school to play in the orchestra there and also played in the big band. By the end of sixth grade, I knew I was going to go to The Juilliard School and be a musician.
When did you know that you wanted to pursue music professionally?
Once I got my driver’s license, I drove myself to the Ohio State University to study music theory and ear training, and also played with various jazz combos, including the graduate level ensemble, under the tutelage of Hank Marr, one of America’s great Hammond B3 players. I was a busy kid- I played in youth orchestra, and several community orchestras, usually as Principal. And I gigged, playing bars on campus before I was at a legal age to drink. Quite the dilemma when partially paid in beer and bagels!
If you could program a TSO concert, what music would you select and why?
If I was tasked with programming a concert for the TSO, my first choice would be Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler, Mathis the painter. It is still one of my favorite pieces decades after being introduced. I’d pair it with other works inspired by paintings, there is no shortage! Morton Feldman, Ottorino Respighi, Sergei Rachmaninov, Bohuslav Martinů, Claude Debussy all were inspired by paintings. The better question might be which composers weren’t!
Another composer I’d love to program is David Diamond, the great American Symphonist. His music conveys warmth and tenderness with directness and honesty that is rarely heard elsewhere.
Which concert did you enjoy performing the most last season and why?
The most memorable concert of the last season was, for me, the Roméo et Juliette concert. Very few composers have the theatric sensibility of Prokofiev, and an equipment malfunction made it ever more dramatic for me personally. During the first movement, The Montagues and Capulets, which is bass heavy, my bow experienced a rapid unscheduled dismantling. I had to leave the stage and grab my spare.
Which concert are you most looking forward to next season and why?
This next season I’m looking forward to the Thor’s Hammer in Mahler 6, the Haydn Farewell symphony, which, besides the theatrics employed to negotiate higher salaries for the court musicians, has a bass solo in it. Shostakovich 5 was the first score I ever bought and studied, and it has a great bass part that is a blast to play.
What do you love about the bass?
I love the role of bass in orchestra. We are more often than not the foundation of the orchestra; not just harmonically and sonically, but also rhythmically. It’s voice is profound, and modern technique has given us the ability to soar to the same virtuosic heights as the other strings do.
As a veteran member of the TSO, what are some of your favorite TSO memories?
The greatest highlights of my thirty years as Principal Bass in the TSO have definitely been the opportunity to be upfront of the orchestra as a soloist. Not too many bassists ever play concertos, but I’ve done it three times, including playing the delightful concerto of František Hertl. I believe I gave its second performance with orchestra in the world, first in the US. Another highlight was playing in the rhythm section behind Bernadette Peters. On one chart, the orchestra dropped out and it was just her singing and I playing as she climbed up on the piano and seductively reclined.
What do you love about Tucson?
For an outdoorsy person, which I am, Tucson is one of the greatest places to live. There are more hikes within a half hour of downtown than probably any other American city our size. The biking was great before the Loop, and is even better now. We’re even getting a velodrome! Tucson has great food, multiculturalism, and a community that makes it possible to thrive on a musician’s salary.