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When not working for the BSO, how do you spend your time? My partner and I enjoy the many live theatre companies in the area. I attend Baltimore Opera and Washington National Opera Company productions and watch the Metropolitan Opera live in movie theatres when my schedule allows. For exercise, I use a treadmill and free weights but for total mind-body connection, I am strengthening my connection to yoga and its accompanying philosophies. I can’t find enough time to read for pleasure. This summer found me learning some basic kayaking skills and taking some hikes at Oregon Ridge.
Another career I might have chosen would be…a bureaucrat in the federal government.
What kind of music helps you unwind? I find that I don’t listen to music anymore when I’m trying to unwind. But on occasion when I do, Copland’s Appalachian Spring usually puts me in a reflective place.
In the car, I listen to…WYPR and WBJC-news and classical music.
My ring tone is…something by Satie, I think. Thankfully my cell phone rarely rings.
The last book I read was…Michael Pollen’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, about the industrial-food complex. I don’t know what is safe to eat anymore.
What would most people be surprised to learn about you? Can’t think of anything. I see myself as just an ordinary human being trying to figure out how to live responsibly in this world, just trying to wake up and be compassionate and let go.
What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done or biggest risk you have ever taken? Well, this summer in kayak class I had to take my perfectly dry self and purposely roll the kayak over into the river to practice coming out of the kayak cockpit underwater and being rescued. It seemed pretty daunting at the time. Thank goodness the Gunpowder River was warm.
What is your dream or if you have already achieved it, what was it? In many ways, the life I’m living now is a dream life: I have a great job in a good organization. I’m connected to the music I love. I’ve go a supportive partner and we live in a wonderful neighborhood. We work hard and we play hard. But I could always be thinner and healthier and have more money.
What non-musical accomplishment are you most proud of? I serve as union steward for the orchestra’s musicians and help oversee the collective bargaining agreement between the musicians and our employer. Being connected to the audition and tenure process through which the organization brings new players into the orchestra gives me a lot of satisfaction.
My guilty pleasure is…going to NYC to attend theatre on Broadway.
Where is your favorite vacation spot? This year it is definitely northern Minnesota (in late August). And I’ll never turn down a trip to Rehoboth Beach if I can help it. But it’s probably someplace in the Rocky Mountains.
The last movie I saw was…Random Harvest with Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson.
How do you prepare for a performance? As orchestra librarians, my colleague Ray Kreuger and I prepare the printed sheet music from which the playing musicians perform. We purchase or rent the scores and parts if we don’t already own the music. Then we review the bowings (these are markings that indicate to the string players when to move their bows up or down). We put the sheet music in separate folders for each concert. At the performance we put these folders on stage and collect them afterwards. And at the concert, the librarian usually carries the scores on-stage for the conductor.
I studied the flute briefly, and the piano and bassoon. I wish I could play the piano in a popular style.
I experience an embarrassing musical moment…anytime the conductor keeps his/her score until after the orchestra has settled itself on stage at a concert, and the hall is quiet, and I have to take the score out on stage by myself. My face still gets quite red by the time I return to the safety of backstage.
An extremely positive musical experience, I have had is…standing in the wings to watch and listen to Renee Fleming sing with the orchestra. She is just the ultimate musician and actress.
Have you had a profound experience, musical or otherwise, that has shaped or deeply influenced your approach to music? I suppose so. My parents created the opportunities for me to love classical and theatrical music, to study music and attend concerts and theatre, and they gave me the gift of attending the Peabody Conservatory. Being connected to this business has just always been something I’ve wanted, so I count myself very fortunate to have the job I have.
If I could spend the day with any composer, it would be…Leonard Bernstein.
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