Featured February, 2023

I sang and performed bass solos in choral groups that were seasonal contributors to the VSA’s performances of The Messiah in the early 1980s and again in the mid-1980s under the direction of VSA Orchestra conductor Keith Cochrane (all prior to when the chorus came under the VSA umbrella in 2002). I spent a couple of decades singing with the North Fork Community Choir before joining the VSA Chorus in 2019. The March concert that year, which was mostly jazz tunes, was very fun, because I had been playing piano and singing jazz tunes with VSA Orchestra members Mike Kern, Toby King, and Andrew Bruington in the Take 5 jazz band.

According to my parents, I sang my first solo for an audience when I was 3 years-old. It was at the Northminster Presbyterian Church in Springfield, OH, where I was born and raised. Though I don’t remember that performance, I do remember singing in church choirs, school choirs, and musical productions through high school. My love for music extended to the piano, and I started taking lessons at age 5. By 7th grade I auditioned to study with Dr. William Walters at Wittenberg University, which led to four years of classical piano lessons and a couple of recitals at the university.

By age 15 I was exposed to the increasingly popular American folk songs which led me to quit piano and teach myself guitar and mandolin. After a year or so I started teaching guitar to other high school students and performing in coffee houses and on college campuses. After cutting off the tip of a left finger in a construction accident, I had to quit guitar, but it led to my learning jazz piano and playing with various groups, which I love. I also love singing with the VSA Chorus and other Western Slope choirs. Someone once said, “Music is life,” with which I totally agree.