About Me
My musical life began when I was 10 years old (between 4th and 5th grade). No one in my family had any experience with music other than playing the radio. My mother was a math teacher, and my father a skilled tradesman.
While I was attending West Chester University
A new music store opened in my hometown of Saginaw and the sign advertised music lessons.I asked my mother if I could get lessons and she replied not now, maybe we will have time in a week or two. She thought I was going to forget about the lessons but was shocked when I kept pestering her for lessons. We finally went to the store to look into lessons and the hard part came up…what to play.
Anything but drums my mother told me, and I thought about it. This was the mid 80’s and almost everything on the radio had a saxophone solo, Duran Duran - Rio, Wham - Careless Whisper (still a great recording despite meme status), Spandau Ballet - True, and most importantly Clarence Clemons who played with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Obviously I had to play the saxophone.
A playlist of some of the recordings that influenced my decision to play saxophone.
Performing with the Criterions Jazz Ensemble at West Chester University
I am not sure if my parents knew what was going to happen when they signed me up for lessons. Thankfully they very supportive of me even though they had no idea on how to guide my music education. I ended up being the first in my family to become a professional musician and music teacher.
Actually, teaching wasn't on my mind. I wanted to play and learn everything I could about music. So I became a music education major at Central Michigan University with the idea that it would allow me to keep my parents happy "while pursuing a real job degree" and still help me become a "professional" musician.
After I graduated from CMU, I wanted to go to graduate school. But instead, I decided to teach in the public schools while I figured out how I was going to afford continuing my education.
The first picture of my wife, Jennifer and me. Taken at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp around the time we started dating.
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Our cats Scottie, Max, and Murphy.