| Home |
Most of my writing has been for chorus and orchestra. In 1989, I arranged fifty-five minutes of music for the National Celebration of The United Methodist Hymnal at Constitution Hall. In 1991, a fifty-five minute Christmas Oratorio, The One Child (who escaped in the night) (a one minute, 474kb excerpt) was commissioned and premiered by the Laurel Oratorio Society. In 1998, a seventy-five minute festival hymn sing, At the River (a one minute, 480kb excerpt), for chorus, congregation, soloists, orchestra and dancers was performed by the the Northeastern Jurisdiction Convocation of the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts. Since its beginning in 1988, I have written numerous arrangements and orchestrations for the Living Christmas Tree (an 85kb photo) in Damascus, MD, including A Shape-note Christmas (a one minute, 474kb excerpt), based on tunes and words from Harmonia Sacra.
I have written and directed music for several Montgomery College theatre productions including A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Lion in Winter, Firebugs, The New Chautauqua and They Dance Real Slow in Jackson.
Spring 2004 saw three performance of A Portland Fancy, an eleven-minute dance piece for flute, violin, guitar, and cello, commissioned by the Montgomery College World Arts and Dance programs. I have written hundreds of arrangements for small ensembles at Montgomery College and elsewhere.
In Spring 2007 I wrote a 40-minute piece for chorus and orchestra for the summer tour of the Charles Wesley Singers and the Academy of St. Cecilia Orchestra of the Damascus United Methodist church.
Sabbaticals in 1991 and 1999 provided opportunities for composition, study, travel and reflection. Part of the 1999 sabbatical was investigating Shape-note Singing. I have participated several times in Montgomery College's Scholarly Effort Program and have been a Critical Literacy Fellow. In 2000, I was a Faculty Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, studying The Impact of Technology on Society , with a focus on Musical Internet Communities.
Outside of the Music Department, I have taught beginning programming in BASIC and Pascal, served on the Faculty Council, Curriculum Committee, Advising Committee, International Education Committee, and Distance Learning Committee and served as Off-Campus Credit Director, Evening and Weekend Coordinator and Campus Operating Budget Coordinator.
Arranging and Composing
Performance
Free-lance horn playing began in my senior year at Montgomery Blair High School, and included performances with the National Gallery Orchestra, the Watergate Orchestra, The Urban Philharmonic, the Washington Opera Society, the Baltimore Opera Society, the Baltimore Chamber Opera Society, the Baltimore Bach Society, the Baltimore Handel Society, the National Theater Orchestra, the Morris Mechanic Theater Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Maryland Chamber Ensemble.
After graduation from The American University, I played Third Horn in the Baltimore Symphony for four years and First Horn in the Mobile Symphony for one year. On coming to Montgomery College in 1968, I continued a busy free-lance career through 1979, when family responsibilities made it impossible.
Performances on recorders and other Renaissance winds began in 1966, first with the Maryland Chamber Ensemble and then with Musica Rara, playing at various Baltimore area venues and on National Public Television.
Name Dropping
Well-known musicians with whom I have performed include Paul Badura-Skoda, Theodore Bikel, Van Cliburn, Aaron Copland, John Denver, Duke Ellington, Arthur Fiedler (and the Boston Pops Tour Orchestra), Mischa Elman, Leon Fleischer, Isaac Hayes, Skitch Henderson, Marilyn Horne, Andre Kostelanetz, Michel Legrand, Johnny Mathis, Roberta Peters, Julius Rudel, Hermann Scherchen, Rudolf Serkin, Doc Severinsen, Isaac Stern, Leopold Stokowski, Renata Tebaldi, Michael Tippitt, Dionne Warwick and Andre Watts.
Degrees and Studies
I received the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music History and Literature from The American University in 1963 and the Master of Music Degree in (French) Horn Performance and Choral Music from Indiana University in 1966. My principle horn teacher was Abe Kniaz. Other horn teachers included Thomas Beversdorf and Philip Farkas.
Teaching Background
I began teaching as a graduate assistant at Indiana University, with horn students of all levels including graduate major. I also taught horn at the Peabody Conservatory from 1965 through 1967. My full-time teaching career began at Montgomery College in 1968. When I resigned in 2004, to devote more time to composition, I became Professor Emeritus.
Montgomery College
Teaching assignments at MC have included Applied Music Laboratory, Class Piano I & II, Listening to Music, World Music, Music Fundamentals for Classroom Teachers, Introduction to Music Theory, Music Theory I-IV, Ear Training and Sightsinging I-IV, College Band, Collegium Musicum, Woodwind Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, College Chorus and private lessons in (French) horn and recorder. Five of my students have won the Concerto Competition and performed as soloists with the College Orchestra. Curriculum development has included authoring the Associate of Arts and Certificate Curriculums in Music, as well as course proposals for twenty current music courses. In the Spring of 2000, I participated in MC's "Access to Quality" program to develop two new web-based music courses, Listening to Music and Introduction to Music Theory. In the Fall of 2002, I began offering a third web-based course, History of Jazz.