Voice Part: Bass 1
Season Joined: 2018-2019
Birthplace: Newark, NJ
What is your story as a singer? I’ve actually only been singing since about 2010, and this was due only to a chance invitation from a friend to participate in the National Presbyterian Church Festival Choir’s annual performance of the ‘Messiah’. The first few rehearsals were a bit rocky for me at first, and I nearly quit, but fortunately I didn’t yield to that impulse and I ended up enjoying it immensely. Since then, I have been singing every year, trying to make up for lost time.
Do you sing with other choirs? No.
Favorite onstage experience: So far, I would say this would be the first time I got to experience singing at the Kennedy Center in a performance of the 5th Symphony of Philip Glass. This was a very exciting piece to perform. It recounts what might be considered a global sacred history of the world, from the Creation through the fall of human beings to the hope of their redemption, drawing from many and diverse sacred texts, including Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu selections, along with certain Japanese and African narratives.
What are you listening to these days? In the concert music genre, I have been listening to early music, both sacred and secular; chamber music; and music for solo piano, all by various composers. I also have been listening to Native American flute music, such as that of
R. Carlos Nakai, and “space music”, which I first learned about through an NPR program called “Music from the Hearts of Space”. Steve Roach is one exemplar of this genre.
