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!

Morning Show: Eileen Farrell

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I have had some thrilling moments in my years of doing the Morning Show at WGTD,  but I'm not sure anything quite equals the thrill I had of doing a phone interview with one of the most legendary singers of the 20th century,  Eileen Farrell.  Her voice was famously likened to Niagra Falls,  and I'm

The Jane Song

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I have been known to write and sing a few goof ball songs in my day - and here's the most recent.  It's a little ditty I composed for the farewell dinner/program for my Carthage colleague Jane Livingston,  who retired as head of our piano program after 20 years as a full-time faculty member. I

“To Joy” (Gerald Finzi)- sung by Austin Merschdorf

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This is a performance from the most recent Honors Recital at Carthage- May 15, 2016.  One of my sophomore voice students,  Austin Merschdorf sang three songs by Gerald Finzi …. each one related in one way or another to Death.  The text of the song is by a poet friend of Finzi's named Edmund Blunden.

Caritas sings “His Eye is on the Sparrow”

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Charles Gabriel's "His Eye is on the Sparrow" is a beautiful song that I first encountered it many years ago when I heard Ethel Waters sing it for a televised Billy Graham Crusade.  As much as I loved how she sang it with her quavery yet striking voice (she was nearly 80 years old at

Caritas sings “Rest”

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At the recent funeral of Gary Green, a beloved former member of Holy Communion,  Caritas was asked to sing several songs that the Greens had listened to during Gary's final days.  One of them was this beautiful piece by Phil McHugh and Greg Nelson. The first voice you'll hear is Chip McCrary, who used to

Black September – Final moments

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These are the final moments of "Black September."  The words are by Matt Boresi.  The music is by me (with certain passages based on the main theme from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.) The killing of the Israeli athletes and coaches has just occurred - and the narrator of the piece, Dietrich Genscher (Mike Anderle),  reprises the