Instrument/Position:
Second Clarinet
Hometown:
Racine, Wisconsin
Education:
A BA in music from San Jose State Univ, with a life time, California, K-12 teaching credential in music, and a minor in math.
Joined the Symphony:
1965
Other orchestras/ensembles/festivals you have or currently play with:
MidSummer Mozart, 561 Air Force Band, San Jose Municipal Band, Santa Clara Philharmonic, Opera San Jose, Scholar Opera, San Jose Civic Light Opera, and Jazz ensembles at Foothill College, De Anza College, San Jose State, and West Valley College.
Most memorable musical experience:
Playing with Pavorotti at the SAP event center. He came very late to the one and only rehearsal with about thirty people in attendance and in a very big limo too, that drove right to the stage. Then he didn’t like the sound system at all, almost cancelled, and we ended up rehearsing with him for only about ten minutes. Then at the concert, we started out with nothing but applause for about the first ten or fifteen minutes because the 17,700 people in the attendance were so excited to see him in San Jose for the first time, that they just wouldn’t stop applauding as he just stood there slowly circling in the bright spotlight and waving his white handkerchief to the crowd. Finally he had to wave both of his hands downward to get them to stop applauding so that we could start. Then the very minute he sang his first few notes, the insane applause just started right up again and we couldn’t hear a single thing that we were playing. Mike Corner then leaned over to me and said that this was the craziest concert that he’s ever played in his entire life as the wall of sound just kept washing right over us again. Plus, because the concert was in the SAP arena and the home of the Sharks, we were set up right on the ice on a wooden stage in the middle of the rink and with a wall of booming speakers, and a temperature was somewhere around 36 – 40 degrees too. Completely unbelievable, but the audience totally loved it, and he made over a million dollars for about forty five minutes. Then they brought him back a couple of years later for a repeat performance, and the insane applause just started right up again too, the very minute he walked on stage.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing:
Machining and did so for 45 years in addition to playing.
Hobbies:
Hiking , enjoying nature, hanging out with my daughter Nadine, exercising, reading, going to movies, listening to music, watching my collection of DVD’s, enjoying high end restaurants, looking through my two telescopes, working on my six vehicles, and investing.
Favorite vacation spot:
Yosemite
What three things can always be found in your refrigerator:
Milk, cookie dough, and eggs.
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be:
Always surround yourself with quality friends that really stimulate you and will always be there to support you.
Do you have a “bucket list” piece of orchestral music that you have yet to play:
Not really. I think that I have probably played about 10,000 times since I first joined the musician’s union in 1960, but I do have my favorites, like almost anything by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Debussy, or Prokofief.
