Tell folks you were born in Chicago and invariably they’ll ask “What part?” I was born literally in metro Chicago, growing up in its various neighborhoods and suburbs (somehow not encountering Alan Pierson until Eastman.) My maternal grandmother’s hand-me-down Baldwin Acrosonic upright piano proved the vehicle of my calling. Deep thanks go to Mom and Dad for their extensive support and to master-teacher Emilio del Rosario, who instilled in me a secure technique. The Reformed church of my youth taught me of the person and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth along with the centuries of diverse hymnody he inspired. Arranging and performing the “great hymns of the faith” became my gateway to composing. Meanwhile, the surrounding airwaves were filled with – in no particular order – Beethoven, classic rock, heavy metal, classic country, and 90’s hiphop. Jazz, strangely, came later.
When Alan asked me to be pianist for the fledgling AWS, little did I imagine how
many personal and career highlights would follow: playing the emergent post-1989 repertory in distinguished halls; premiering literally hundreds of new works (roughly a dozen original ones); collaborating with brilliant dancers, writers, visual artists, multimedia artists, actors, and directors as well as my amazing musician bandmates; playing a grand piano in evening formalwear 30 feet up in the air while harnessed to well-concealed steel cables; being part of a flash mob in a South Korean shopping mall; twittering birdcalls on synths in US national and state parks; reverse-engineering electronica for orchestral instruments; or transcribing contemporary classics for solo piano considered unplayable by two hands.
When not part of an AWS production or scrawling notes, I seem to have returned to my roots, serving as organist for a downtown Methodist church in Peoria, central Illinois. On one side of the building, I have the privilege of playing a 77-stop, 63-rank, 3-manual 1977 Wicks; on the other, I help lead worship for the service called Alive in tandem with the Loaves and Fish relief ministry for the unhoused and working poor – endeavoring to affirm the principle that what we do to the least / lost / left behind we also do to the King of Kings.
