Hometown:

Fort Worth, TX

Year you joined the Grant Park Music Festival:

2004

Where did you study?

Eastman School, Shepperd School of Music at Rice University (MM)

What do you love most about your instrument?

It’s loud!

What are you listening to right now?

Tool (heavy metal), A Perfect Circle, Miles Davis, Mahler

What would you be if you weren’t a musician?

Working in a brokerage firm like my father.

Signature dish?

Cedar plank grilled salmon

Can you share any memorable stories from your experience with Grant Park Music Festival?

The week the Pritzker opened, July 2004…a close friend (who was a trombonist) had passed away a couple of weeks before. The last piece on the program for that concert was a piece by Copland called The Promise of Living, which he and I had actually played together. This season I proposed to my girlfriend, who I actually met playing here. I was going to do it at the Pritzker but couldn’t because of Gospel Fest, so I proposed out in the garden.