| Education: Ph.D. Biomedical Sciences University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center B.A. Music St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota B.A. Biology St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota |
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How I ended up here I was born and raised in the Minneapolis area. I first took up the sax at the beginning of 6th grade. To this day, I don't recall why I chose the sax. I fell in love with jazz while playing in the Jazz Lab ensemble at Hopkins High School under the direction of drummer Bob Stacke. I was further inspired by live performances Count Basie, Maynard Ferguson and others. I enrolled at St. Olaf College (renowned for its music programs) thinking I'd be a band teacher, but I ditched the education coursework for a music/biology double major (Uff da!). I played in the St. Olaf Band under the direction of the late Miles Johnson, and I also served as Student Director of the St. Olaf Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Ruben Haugen (under whom I studied sax and doubling on clarinet and flute). After college, I traveled around as a sales/RP rep for a veterinary laboratory for couple years before getting back to music. I continued jazz improvisation and clarinet studies with Brian Grivna, a veteran of the Buddy Rich band. I spent my afternoons teaching several dozen kids and adults how to play sax and clarinet. I spent my nights playing with Stone Foundation, a horn section R&B/funk band out of Minneapolis. I also spent many a night in the pit orchestras of numerous musical theater productions. I enjoyed working with my students, but after a couple of years, I had to move on. Do I go back to school for science or music? Hmm. No-brainer. Since I needed to have an advanced degree to be a real scientist, but not to get sax gigs, I relocated to Houston, Texas to earn a Ph.D. in biomedical science. While in the Lone Star State, I performed with the Bayou City Stax, Hamilton Loomis, Mother Superior and the Bad Habits, Identity Crisis, Brass, Rhythm & Reeds, the Gulf Coast Concert Band, the Houston Concert Band, and in musical theater productions. More rewarding still was meeting and marrying my wife Lori. After graduate school, I took a research position at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda Maryland. THere, I learned to use functional MRI to study motivational circuitry in the brain-- how our brains respond to cues in our environment to turn incentives into action. My work focused on how adolescent development and substance abuse affects motivational circuitry. I regularly perform with the Difficult Run Jazz Band, Too Many Daves and the Brass Soulution, the Don Junker Big Band, and the Seneca Creek Community Church worship team. I am also privileged to make regular guest/sub appearances with La Mont Mitchell and Friends, Spectrum, Grooveline, jazz trios with Washington Talent, Onyx, the Jim Bowie Band, and other great party bands. I want to play for you!
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