[Daniel]

Tuba, Piano and Voice. Not necessarily in that order.

I wanted to play the piano as a young child- my mother attempted to teach me: big mistake. Didn't get to really learn anything until college and then was so hungry for it I double majored in voice and piano my junior year. I made up for lost time, that's for sure.

Played tuba starting in 6th grade only because the band director was looking for a boy who was tall enough to reach the mouth piece and suckered me into it. Those cold morning on the practice field with my mouth piece stuck, frozen to my lip, weren't any fun. But I did get to be in band and see what it was like with the straight guys- you know- it really is true- at least as far as I can tell- professional brass players are by and large straight. Why is that? And organists are by-and-large gay. Someone should do a study about that.

Voice. Well. That was my first love. And like the gay boy that I am, I met my muse in the sound of Julie Andrews when I went to see the movie Merry Poppins when it first came out. Not only did I want to sing like her...well...I wanted to be her. My mother told me that I sang the songs (children are so precocious) with lyrics and music intact on the way home in the car. Now I'm on the other side of the vocal spectrum. Bass-Baritone. Or as the old Italians called it: Bass-Cantante.

(Oh. I wanted to be a ballet boy too...but we're talking about instruments here. Like the piano, that didn't happen as a child. And it was much too late to do anything about it when I went to an AG school. There wasn't any dance classes for boys there.)

I learned to play an orchestra worth's of instruments when I was in school and got my music teaching degree (hyperventilating when learning to play the flute is a precious memory), but this seems like overkill now, doesn't it? They really don't count, even though my String Bass teacher told me I had the hands for it. This time, I didn't get suckered. I stayed with Voice.

It wasn't until I was in graduate school that I found a great teacher- in fact- an exceptional teacher- a teacher of teachers. Someone who taught me how to learn, how to practice, how to think. I thank her every day.