Program Notes Writer

I began playing percussion in middle school band in Plano, Texas. In 1989, I first attended National Music Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and gained my first exposure to great music through concerts conducted by Larry Rachleff, Henry Charles Smith and Timothy Russell in performances including Daphnis et Chloé Suite Number 2, Brahms's Fourth Symphony and Tchakovsky's Violin Concerto.

It turned out most other percussionists my age were also focused on the band scene, so only the orchestra spots were open by the time my application was reviewed. In addition to hearing the great music performed by the High School orchestra (known rather grandly as the World Youth Symphony Orchestra) and visiting professional orchestras that summer, I—as the only orchestral timpanist in the Intermediate division—rehearsed and performed with both the Intermediate Symphony and Intermediate Concert Orchestras each week, learning a mountain of repertoire in the process.

As I returned to Interlochen for camp the following summer and attended Interlochen Arts Academy for high school, my focus turned to conducting. Sitting in the back of the orchestra counting measures of rest awaiting the next cymbal crash gives one the opportunity to learn the rest of the orchestra parts and study the conductor's rehearsal techniques. I began to discuss interpretations with conductors and eventually found opportunities to conduct ensembles myself. In the meantime, I pored over scores and devoured biographies of musicians and composers.

At Youngstown State University, I received great support from Ron Gould, Bill Slocum, David Vosburgh and Stephen Gage as assistant conductor for the University Orchestra, Chorus and Opera. After leading musical direction for the University's A Little Night Music in the fall of my sophomore year, I was privileged to work with Broadway veteran David Vosburgh at the Youngstown Playhouse as musical director for a run of musicals including Baby, 1776, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, South Pacific and Hello, Dolly!

Though I continued to conduct, including taking on a position with Dr. Ronald Gould as assistant music director at St. John's Episcopal, I began to write more and shifted my major to music history and literature. I wrote program notes for our performance of Robert Levin's completion of Mozart's Requiem, and though Ron was mostly pleased with my class papers, he told me I could have done better with the Mozart notes, and I've imagined him looking over my shoulder ever since.

Preview samples of my program note writing in the right-hand column within the catalog. Please contact me for information on use or other questions. New programs are being written throughout the concert season, both from the standard reportory and of modern works.

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