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I have always had a secret (well, not-so-secret) obsession with musical theater. I think if I had been taller (short guys never get the lead) and could dance…

In a normal year, we’d be in the thick of it by now with a full schedule of orchestra concerts, with pops shows, movie concerts, and classical programs as our weekly…

I met Maria and Tom in the autumn of 1994 in Canada, in the wonderful Banff Centre for the Arts. We played a lot of music together, and then we spent long nights…

Bach has been helping me get through the quarantine. During these unique months, I’ve spent a great deal of time cycling through the Violin Partitas/Sonatas as well…

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…”