I’m a thinker, a teacher, and an artist. Always learning, always expanding what I do. Always trying to help.

I can help you understand classical music’s future. Find out what I think. Let me help you adapt.

I write music that’s probing and varied, unique and appealing. Hear what I’ve done.

My latest news:

Wishing everyone a happy holiday!

I sent out a newsletter, my first in a couple of years.

With a fun photo of my son petting an adorable South American animal, a capybara.

And with thoughts about something I did in my Juilliard course, asking my students to tell me fun facts about what they do as classical musicians. Like giving their tuba a bath! Thinking that this could make classical music more real and more human, to outsiders.

Above all, I wrote about the ticket-sales crisis, now afflicting many big orchestras in the US. A crisis bad enough (halls more empty than full) to make me wonder how orchestras will survive.

Click the link above to read what I wrote. And you can subscribe here.

For something happier than ticket sales:

Listen to the great tenor Carlo Bergonzi — whom I adore — singing “White Christmas.”

Singing it with such complete purity. First in English, with great devotion, even though English is plainly not his first language.

Then he sings in Italian. Completely at home, with a quiet glow like the sun coming out.

My favorite Christmas recording. Honest and touching, so lovingly sung.

Happy holidays!