- I’m the guy who reads the names at Commencement! I love watching students cross the platform at graduation, and I really try my best to say everyone’s name correctly. So when it’s time, be sure to call our pronunciation hotline. Even simple ones look complicated when there are over 850 of them!
- This wraps up my lucky 13th year at Siena. I’m on my 4th (and 5th!) name tag since 2011, and my current ones say Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Professor of Creative Arts. I teach the Siena choirs (particularly Chamber Singers) and other courses in music, like honors intro to music, and American music. In the dean’s office I focus on activities and events for our newer faculty.
- My doctoral degree is a DMA (doctor of musical arts), which is a performance degree in choral conducting. While it sounds like fun – and it is – it’s more than waving my arms around. It involves investigating and researching the music on the page, and what the composer might be trying to tell us. That informs my interpretation of the sound, and how to teach and perform it.
- Score study is great mental activity, but it often involves sitting still. So when I started grad school in Maryland (go Terps!) I started walking the nature trail next to my apartment complex. A few weeks later I decided to pick up the pace, and I’ve enjoyed running outdoors ever since.
Especially in the winter. And especially in the SNOW!! I love it. The whole world transforms, and there is a peace and beauty that cannot be made in any other way. On a snowy morning, I try to get outside before anyone starts their loud, smelly snowblowers. Those first footprints are absolute magic. Making snowmen, shoveling, skiing. Anything snow. - When I’m not at Siena, I serve as choirmaster and director of music at the cathedral in Albany. There are about 250 catholic cathedral music ministers in the U.S., and I am honored to be among them. We offer programs for children in K-3rd grade, 4-8th grade, and a semi-professional adult choir for high school and college students and beyond. We sing everything from Gregorian chant to music written by living composers.
- Everyone makes mistakes. And one of mine named a new saint! One time as a cantor for mass, I had to sing a litany of the saints – a list of saint names that has a very particular order. Since I was given the list about five minutes before mass, I had no time to practice. So I had to try to read ahead as I sang. Long story short, I combined two names to make “St. John Dominic.” My wife was pregnant with our second child at the time, and everyone joked that it’s what his name should be. And it is!
- Speaking of my wife… we met in a choir, of course! In addition to being one of the most mentally beneficial activities that humans can engage in, music ensembles are a wonderful social activity. Some of my Siena students have become best friends, or even more. One of our spring cabaret shows even featured a musical (and real) marriage proposal. So remember, there might be more than just music in the air!
I love manual transmission cars. In fact, it’s a lifelong passion. Kids could sit in the front seat when I was growing up, and by the time I was six, I was helping my dad shift the gears of his ‘83 Subaru. (And singing along with Barbra Streisand, but that’s a different story…) A little bit like my next hobby, driving stick makes you more mindful and patient, because you have to anticipate changes and make adjustments (don’t stall going up that hill!). My co-pilot, Claude, has been in every car I’ve ever owned.- Another old fashioned hobby that I love is manual film photography. Not every photo comes out the way I expect, and that’s the beauty of it. The way a real camera feels in your hands is so satisfying. There is a delightful anticipation in (finally!) finishing a roll of film, winding it into the canister, getting it developed, and then (finally!) that moment of seeing what I captured. Yes, I use my phone too. But it’s not the same as a backpack full of lenses.
- I grew up in the kitchen. It’s how I spent quality time with my mom, who was from a long line of home and restaurant chefs. I’ve always enjoyed baking and cooking, but about 10 years ago I “reclaimed” (stole outright) my mother’s Paris pans, and one snowy day (of course!), I made baguettes for the first time since I was about ten years old. Now there’s almost always a loaf ready for company… or several for my friends at the Siena Beverage Institute and their pirate-themed tastings.
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