CURRENT MISSION

Adapt and Overcome

ABOUT ME

Most of my youth and young adult life was narrowly focused on becoming and then making a living as a professional classical musician. I love listening to, studying, and performing music.

I've been residing in the D.C. area since 2005 and have had some really wonderful experiences with really cool and interesting people from all over. The list of fun things to do in a place like D.C. are virtually endless. For example D.C. has a great Argentine Tango community. I started taking lessons in 2008 and after surmounting a rather steep learning curve I discovered another passion that rivaled classical music in my life.

PHILOSOPHY

Always do your best but still be nice; don't compromise your integrity.

“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity" Buddha

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” Buddha

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions” Rainer Maria Rilke

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”
Leonardo Da Vinci

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death” Einstein

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.” Samuel Johnson

"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself." Soren Kierkegaard

“The secret of getting things done is to act.”
Dante Alighieri

“Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.” Soren Kierkegaard

"good composers borrow, great composers steal" Igor Stravinsky

“The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. stone crumbles. wood rots. people, well, they die. but things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.”
Chuck Palahniuk

Interests

Music (all genres, listen predominantly to classical), Dancing tango, CrossFit. My intellectual interest is mainly centered around the humanities. I'm interested in understanding the world and our place in it, where humanity is going, how technology and culture play a role in how the individual sees the world. I enjoy discussing theories, foreign policy, history, music, etc.

• culture
• humanities
• dancing
• tango
• fitness
• crossfit
• technology
• music
• classical music
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:

Movies by Christopher Nolan, Inception was amazing
Movies by Werner Herzog
Movies by Lars Von Trier
Movies by Coen Brothers
Some movies by Quentin Tarantino, like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1,2
Che, Soderbergh
many, many more

Music: (basically all the best stuff, many genres)

Gregorian Chant
Joasquin Des Prez
J.S. Bach, - Cantatas, Mass in B Minor, Goldberg variations, cello suites et,
Mozart - Operas obviously, Clarinet Concerto, Quintet, String Quintets, Sacred Music
Beethoven, Symphonies, String Quartets, piano sonatas
Schubert, Symphonies, Sacred Works, etc
Schumann, Dichterliebe
Brahms, Symphonies, Chamber Music, Clarinet Quintet and Trio
Tchaikovsky, Symphonies 4-6
Wagner - Instrumental interludes, preludes of his Operas, like Tristan and Isolde
Rachmaninoff, Symphonies, Piano Concertos
Ravel - Daphnes und Chloe
Richard Strauss - Four Last Songs, Alpine Symphony, Operas, etc
Bartok - Miraculous Mandarin, Concerto for Orchestra, Contrasts
Alban Berg - Wozzeck, Lulu,
Messiaen - Quartet for End of Time
Stravinsky - Firebird, Histoire du Soldat, Symphony of Psalms
Shostakovich, String Quartets, some of his Symphonies
Prokofiev

Nielsen - Symphonies, Clarinet Concerto
Copland - Clarinet Concerto
Samuel Barber
Schnittke
John Williams - Star Wars Soundtrack
John Adams

Metal (every now and then)

Metallica,
Mastodon,
Perfect Circle
others,

Tango music

Piazolla
Puliegsse

Books:

Shakespeare
Anna Karenina
The Red Book

more..

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Recently was accepted and attended Marine Officers Candidates School for five weeks; unforgettable experience in which to put it simply I didn't fit in at all and got dropped from the class. It was one of those painful experiences in which you get a much clearer idea of who you are.

Teach, Learn, Share

I play and teach clarinet professionally. I've spent thousands upon thousands of hours practicing in this area so if you have any questions about classical music, performing, auditioning, etc I can help.

I've danced Argentine Tango for two years and can teach the basics.

Have been an active participant in Crossfit this past year. Can demonstrate and answer basic questions concerning physical fitness and Crossfit.

I want to learn

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