Listen!

On this Listen page you will find a mixture of things: a sampling of some of my musical compositions, excerpts from some of my own performances (relatively recent ones as well as from the more distant past) – with a few performance by my voice students — and a few representatives examples of the interviews I do on my daily radio program “The Morning Show” on WGTD FM 91.1 and wgtd.org. Happy Listening!

Excerpts from Gigi – 2018 Recital

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One of the people to whom I paid tribute on my recital was the renowned lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, best known for penning the book and lyrics to such towering Broadway classics as My Fair Lady, Camelot and Brigadoon.  2018 marks the 100th anniversary of his birthday.  But I chose to sing something from their

“Somewhere” – from my 2018 Recital

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The first half of my recital was devoted to honoring some important figures in music such as Leonard Bernstein, who was born 100 years ago this year.  No tribute to Bernstein would be complete without the amazing song "Somewhere" from his masterpiece West Side Story.  This is how I ended the first half of my

The First Nowell- with Weston Noble

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I am so fortunate to have three-fold memories of making music with the legendary Weston Noble:  from my undergraduate days (1978-1982),  from his year in residency with the Carthage Choir (2007-2008 - and brief return visits in subsequent years) and in the Weston Noble Alumni Choir.  How blessed was I?  In this season, I find

Bright, New Love

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This is my newest Christmas composition.  I wrote it for my Lincoln Chamber Singers for this year's Christmas Festival, "From Heaven Above."   Because composer Jocelyn Hagen had been commissioned to write a piece based on that hymn tune to serve as the concert's finale,  there were to be no other arrangements of that hymn sung

Refuge and Strength

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This is a setting I composed of Psalm 46 - "God is our refuge and strength" - which is one of the traditional readings for Reformation Day.  It is sung here by the Senior Choir of Holy Communion Lutheran Church, where I am minister of music.   This was composed for a particular Reformation Day where

To Sing God’s Praise

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In the fall of 1987,  I was back at Luther for my 5th year reunion.  I'm pretty sure it was at the Saturday morning homecoming parade that I bumped into Weston Noble,  who was sweet enough to say that he had missed hearing me sing and wanted me to stop by his office and sing

“Hush”

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A beautiful song by a very talented Luther graduate named Ben Larson. Ben lost his life in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti - but not before creating all kinds of moving songs like this one. I was asked by Ben's parents to create a choral arrangement of "Hush."  I hope I have managed to retain

Morning Show interview with Starbuck’s Howard Behar

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I don't think I fully appreciated at the time what a privilege it was for me to be able to record an interview with Howard Behar, a past president of Starbucks.   I think part of the reason may be that I am not a coffee drinker (I've never had so much as a sip

Trumpeter Christopher Martin- Pt. Two

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Here is part two of the phone interview I did several years ago with Christopher Martin, who was named principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony back in 2005.  It was just announced that he has resigned that position in order to assume a similar post with the New York Philharmonic.   In this portion of