Born in 1952, growing up in rural Colorado, my parents loved classical and jazz music. I received a Bachelor of Music Performance and Music Education from the University of Northern Colorado, and a Master of Music from Yale University. I served as Principal Tuba of The Florida Orchestra from 1979 to 2019 (forty years). Memorable highlights include performing about 150 concerts each year at various venues such as Mahaffey Theater, Eckerd Hall, Straz Performing Arts Center, Amalie Arena, multiple local outdoor parks, and many concerts in other cities throughout the state; performing the Star Spangled Banner with Whitney Houston in 1991 at Superbowl XXV in Tampa at Raymond James stadium; the inception of the grand Tuba and Alligator experiment, 2007 at Gatorland in Kissimmee with Jeff Klinkenberg; serving as Education Director of the Orchestra and developing and administering multiple music educational programs throughout Tampa Bay; and now teaching music and humanities courses here at SPC and at USF St. Pete.