I have lived in the Rogue Valley since 1997, when I also joined the Rogue Valley Symphony. My wife Marcia and I moved with our two-year-old daughter Alison to Ashland.
My wife and I have both done different things as careers: technical writing, biogenetics, bookkeeping, magazine editing, and teaching. I got my MAT degree at SOU in 2008 and have taught in the band program at Ashland Middle School for many years. Throughout my life I’ve always kept music alive in my life by performing in brass quintets, freelancing in churches, conducting, teaching trumpet privately, and playing in orchestras.
Upon moving to the Rogue Valley, I also started playing in concert bands, two of which I’m still active in, the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band and the Ashland City Band.
During the pandemic in April 2020, Cindy Hutton and I, along with my daughter Alison, who’s now grown up to become a professional musician (she’s third horn with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra), started an ad hoc horn group (as Alison’s dad, I was allowed to play flugelhorn), playing every Sunday in Lithia Park. This turned out to be something of a spiritual lifesaver for me and other horn players who gradually joined the group, allowing us to play during the most rigorous lockdown period, which continued into October.
My most recent endeavor is becoming the choir director at Ascension Lutheran Church in Medford, where I have a pretty steep learning curve with working with a choir and programming music for Sunday services. I do enjoy working with groups, and am looking forward to the challenge.