Blog

Classical musicians are so familiar with the necessity of being alone, working on our craft. The 10,000 hour concept only continues since, as small muscle athletes…

During the early days of COVID, musicians were deprived not only of their audiences, but of each other. Music is an inherently…

I am thrilled to be a part of the 45^th Parallel Universe as a guest of my long-time friend and musical colleague, James Shields. Ever since I’ve known James, he’s been the…

Brass REALM is an acronym for the members of our ensemble: Ryan Little, Ethan Bensdorf, Aaron McCalla, Liam Day, and Marques Young.

Several years ago, I had the rare opportunity to perform Morton Feldman‘s 2nd String Quartet, a six-hour masterpiece…

Last week, 45^th Parallel Universe celebrated our 10th Friday-night performance of the Portland Social Distance Ensemble (PSDE). This Friday…

I’m an impatient person by nature. I hate being told to wait, to breathe deeply, to meditate on the moment. You say wait, I say why? To those who have taken the…

After the tragic attack of May 2017 on the Portland MAX train, a disquieting thought haunted me repeatedly over the next week. “It could’ve been any of us…”

When Ron Blessinger called me back in May to be part of the Portland Social Distance Ensemble, it all sounded like magic to me. I feel most at home…

When we began this experiment in social distance music making, we were simply trying to give quarantined musicians a way to connect while isolated. My dear friend…

I used to feel a certain way on concert weekends. This set of feelings was specific to what day it was during the weekend of a Classical series at the Oregon Symphony.

It’s been an interesting seven weeks, hasn’t it? Virtually no one has been spared the adverse effects of the spread of COVID-19.