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When not on stage, in addition to the practice necessary to play in an ensemble such as the BSO, I enjoy kayaking, travel, learning languages, working with and building computer systems.
I could never imagine myself doing anything other than making music, but perhaps I would have become a doctor, a lawyer, a racecar driver, or something related to fitness such as a Taekwondo teacher.
Jazz music, ambient music, and classic rock help me unwind but I enjoy listening to anything with integrity. Sometimes silence can be wonderful as well.
In the car, I usually listen to…orchestral music I am currently performing and practicing, news or NPR, or the sounds of my car on the road.
The ring ton on my cell phone is a vibration in my jacket pocket.
People might be surprised to know that…I earned a Black Belt in Taekwondo, and that I used to play Rush and REM tunes on the electric guitar in suburban Kansas City basement bands with my friends in high school when I wasn’t drag racing my car at the track on the weekends. I’m also rather handy with a Yo-Yo and had no idea who Anna Nichole Smith was until she died.
My guilty pleasure would probably be Vaccaro’s desserts and the Simpsons.
My favorite vacation spot is any new and exciting place I can have the chance to visit. I love to travel so much!
To prepare for a performance…I practice technique, repertoire, improvise, memorize and study scores and recordings as is required of any professional who is held to a high standard of performance like we are. I try to draw on inspiring life experiences and those in the lives of the composers to bring expression to my playing.
If I weren’t a bassist, I would have probably been a percussionist…they always look like they’re having so much fun back there.
I also play the electric bass and do a fair amount of playing around with synthesizers and computer audio.
An embarrassing moment which happened to me on stage once, was when my rosin fell to the floor in Boston’s Symphony Hall where the stage was angled forward…so the rosin just slowly and loudly rolled all the way to the edge of the stage then continued after loudly hitting the floor of the house and continuing to roll during a quiet moment in Rachmanninov’s 2nd symphony. It could have been worse, it could have been a trumpet mute.
If I could spend the day with any classical composer, it would be…Gustav Mahler or Johannes Brahms…if only to thank them personally for writing such glorious bass parts.
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