Hey, I'm Bram! I'm a graduate student in choral conducting studying at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. My field in particular is called "post-classical" music, which means classical without all the fancy trappings. I conduct chamber choirs in bars and coffeeshops, essentially because I think the music I love most shouldn't be the exclusive provenance of rich fancy people.

I'm really outgoing, gregarious, pugnacious, and interested in pretty much everything. Billy Collins is my favorite poet. Homemade buttermilk biscuits are my favorite food. New England is my favorite place and I kind of just want to live under a tree and teach conducting in a park.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm on Couchsurfing because I needed housing for a trip, and it occurred to me that giving back would be awesome and fun. I have a couch in my living room. If you need to crash in Kansas City, talk to me.

Interests

Music and making it, hiking, politics and activism, baking, good solid discourse.

• dining
• beer
• baking
• drinking
• politics
• music
• classical music
• hiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Just read like two pages of the "Memos" by Charles Ives. No, he's not some Jack Kerouac knockoff, he's a billionaire who made his money honestly and wrote amazing music.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'm gonna toot my own horn and just say the most amazing thing I've done is conduct a fifteenth-century drinking song (William Cornysh's "Hoyda, Jolly Rutterkin") in a bar. I conducted with one hand and held a beer with the other — it was terrific, and everybody loved it. Classical music doesn't have to be dressed in tuxedos and displayed beneath chandeliers. Snobs are boring.

Teach, Learn, Share

A great approach to life (and conducting, which is where I learned it first) is to always examine how something might be your fault before going and looking in the fault in others. It makes a great feminist/postmodern viewpoint too: "How is my viewpoint on this limited? How might I be able (or not!) to see it from another side?"

What I Can Share with Hosts

A couch and a full kitchen. I'm a clean freak, so I keep a nice house :-) And it's a Craftsman home built in 1919. I love it. Come hang out here.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States