Q: Ice cream of choice?

A: Ben & Jerry's Lights, Caramel, Action!

Q: If you weren't a musician, what would you do instead?

A: Sleep

Q: Who is your favorite composer of color?

A: It's hard for me to identify one "favorite", but I do like Jessie Montgomery's music a lot in recent years.

Q: What's the longest friendship you've ever maintained? (non-spouse)

A: One of my best friends is from the 3rd grade and we are still in touch!

Q: Ice cream of choice?

A: Cookies and cream ALL the way

Q: Favorite person to troll in the B2TF band??

A: I love trolling Neil, Ian, and of course Drew. It comes from so much love 😂 ❤️

Q: If you weren't a musician, what would you do instead?

A: If I wasn’t a musician, I’d be an architect. I’m fascinated with how buildings/homes are designed and how people interact and use that space. I have many ideas for designs for some spaces I’d like to build!

Q: Who is your favorite composer of color?

A: Dizzy Gillespie

Q: If you could go back and time and save one prominent figure, who would it be?

A: Probably John F. Kennedy!

Q: If you could be anyone for a day, who would you choose?

A: Roger Federer

Q: Who is your favorite person to troll in the B2TF pit?

A: Dave Roth. All day every day. And it's fun because he laughs at the trolling as much as I do!

Q: What's your wildest/strangest gig story?

A: I was a short term member of a band where my costume was a heavy wool cape and hood, complete with a party city mask (most of the tour happened on 85°+ summer days.) During the show I was regularly launched 30 feet in the air on a very unsteady platform (no harness) while giant flames shot behind me. This would happen in front of audiences ranging 500-20,000 people.

Q: Favorite composer of color?

A: Duke Ellington

Q: Favorite female composer?

A: Julia Wolfe. I had the fortune to study with her in school!

Q: If you could save any prominent figure in history, who would it be?

A: Jimi Hendrix!

Q: What's the longest friendship(s) you've ever maintained (non spouse)?

A: I have a group of 7 friends from 7th grade. We text every day. They are my rock!

Q: What is the wildest/strangest gig you've ever played?

A: One that always comes to mind was in 2004. During my second semester in New York, my teacher, Dave Taylor, gave my name to Chris McIntyre and told me to leave my classical chops at home.

Chris was starting up TILT Brass, a wonderful new music group that commissions works for brass players downtown, and eventually one of my favorite ensembles to play with.

This gig was for the SoHo Art Parade. I was told to show up to what looked like a sweat-shop clothing factory loft in Chinatown. I was super early because it was my first time going that far downtown--far from the numbered grid system of Upper Manhattan streets.

Eventually other folks showed up: five trombone players and one disheveled composer who was apparently going through a bad divorce. We were handed five easy, one-line snippets of music that we very quickly rehearsed. We were asked to use those little phrases as a starting point for improvisations. The composer told us "Free Jazz"...except heroic and not "weird Jazz." I threw in some Wagneresque riffs, which he loved (so I got to use my Classical chops after all).

After rehearsal, we went to a cobblestone street in SoHo and got lined up for the parade. We were behind a large flat-bed truck with an out-there jam band. Surrounding the band were many female dancers with huge black wigs and exaggerated black make-up around their eyes. The uniform was red paint....and red paint only.

I was told to dress in all black, but at the staging area, I was asked to change into a basic white tee-shirt. This guy in a leather cowl wrapped around his head and neck showed up (he had no shirt on at all) and said my shirt wasn't right, because it was too new and clean (that's because it was new and clean). I was asked to take the shirt off, and it was thrown onto the street and walked over! I reluctantly put the newly dirty shirt back on, and before I could say anything, a woman ran over to me and drew a line on my shirt with black shoe polish. I looked like a 'spare' slash in bowling. I remember this well because, being only slightly less pale than the tee-shirt, the wet polish soaked through the shirt and strained my skin for many days.

Our music group was led by a little person in a beautiful white tuxedo. He was pulling a rope that was tied to a ten foot long strip of tan felt. At the end of the felt there was a plexiglass pyramid with golf balls inside that were bouncing around.

The five trombone players were in a flying V formation behind the felt and there were four dancers running alongside us.

The caboose of this operation was the guy in the leather cowl (which he called a tribal hood). He was overloading a large 'portable' speaker system (making what he called 'primitive' sounds into a microphone) while a friend pushed the amplifier through the cobblestones in a rusty shopping cart.

The parade wasn't too long and we ended up in an open air event space where a music group was playing. It was five black-American men dressed like they were in the Court of Versailles in the 17th century. One singer and a string quartet. They were playing hip-hop covers. The string arrangements were great, and it was an amazing experience to hear all the hip-hop vocals sung in operatic diction and style.

I realized I was not in Kansas anymore. I got to keep the shirt...

Q: If you weren't a musician, what would you do?

A: Special FX for movies

Q: Earliest childhood memory?

A: Playing with pots and pans with a wooden spoon in my kitchen

Q: What celeb do you hope will come see the show?

A: Barack Obama

Q: Blue with black stripes or white with gold stripes?

A: White with gold stripes

Q: Fav person to troll in the pit?

A: Drew McGriffin

Q: If you weren't a musician, what would you do instead?

A: I kind of always wanted to be an architect; to build something beautiful that would last. Instead, I blow hot air into ornate plumbing! Hey, it’s a living.