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I grew up in Leawood, Kansas, a suburb of
Kansas City, in the region of Overland Park, recently
rated second best in the nation for education and
environment for children (Planned Parenthood, 8/97). It
was, in fact, the quintissential suburb imagined as the
American Dream, for both good and ill, and I am thankful
for my parents struggle to keep me there despite serious
economic hardships. Those who know Kansas do not say that the trip along I-70 between Kansas City and the border with Colorado is boring; they know better. The beauty of the Flint Hills in Kansas is equal to, but different than, the islands of Hawaii, the Rockies, or the Grand Titons. My family had ties to Falls City, Nebraska, Phillipsburg, Kansas, and Frackville, Pennsylvania....a combined population of about 20,000 people. My father's side of the family was Midwestern, my mother's side was immigrant Lithuanian. |
| I began playing flutophone (a type of recorder) in grade school and began saxophone lessons with Miss Imogene Nicols. I entered Meadowbrook Junior High School and must acknowledge Miss Phyllis Glass, the band director, who was an inspiration. She gave me confidence by allowing me to conduct the concert band (music of Eric Coates) for an assembly when I was in the seventh grade. | |
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I attended Shawnee Mission East High School, a suburban school system which included Shawnee Mission North, South, West, and Northwest. There were about 2,000 students at SME, and it had an active band program. In addition to music, I was interested in science. In the tenth grade I completed a research project, "Investigating the ability of carrasius auratus to associate different frequencies of sound with a motor response." I won some science fair awards and contests, and remember being petrified to present my paper at the Nelson Gallery of Art, along with Dr. Alan Pearson, a renowned authority on tornadoes. I also remember how the Kansas City Star translated my paper title into "Carp Has Hearing Aid." Nonetheless, I did not know that my early interest in sound and behavior was to become, in time, my profession. |
| My high school friends remain one of my fondest memories. John Ratzel (Ph.D., MIT), John Sandegren (M.D.), James McElhaney (where are you?), and I formed the Shawnee Mission East saxophone quartet and a quartet of alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, soprano clarinet, and trombone. I retain tapes of the long and wonderful practice sessions, and am impressed with what we did to this day. | |
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I attended the University of Kansas where I had ample opportunity to quench a thirst for public performance. The marching band, symphonic band, a number of saxophone quartets, musical orchestras, and concert recitals were terrific outlets. Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, KU! |
| The music education program was superlative, and introduced me to music psychology, musical acoustics, and world music. I remember Dr. Rudolph E. Radocy who, when I wrote an application letter as a prospective undergraduate expressing worry about only studying music, assured me that I would not be stifled by a limited curriculum. He was so right! | |
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During six summers I taught saxophone and was a counselor at the Midwestern Music and Art Camp and played concerts with the musician's union concert band (the venue was the gazebo you see in 'The Day After' as the missiles head upwards over the Kansas sky. See also Lawrence, Kansas). |
| Upon graduation I received a fellowship at KU and finished my Masters degree. During this time I began to play in some orchestras (although there are only so many saxophone parts), do some conducting of musicals, play in musicals, write some commercial music, and generally do too many things at once. Upon graduation, I was hired as the band director at Wentworth Military Academy and Junior College, in Lexington, Missouri. | |
| The four years at Wentworth were among the most intense, and in many ways the most rewarding, of my early career. We played hundreds of events, traveled to many different venues, participated in concert band contests, and struggled to make music. I wrote a ton of arrangements and original compositions, including a wind and percussion symphony that is unabashedly the most bombastic imaginable. I value the awards, but more so the struggle that led to them. I will never forget representing the State of Missouri in the Cherry Blossom parade, Best in Class at Six Flags, Royal's Stadium during World Series playoffs, meeting media personalities, conducting in the Library of Congress, or meeting the Vice President. If I named all I came to admire in those four years, it would include virtually all in this diverse group of men who formed the Wentworth band. | |
| I received financial support to attend the University of Connecticut in Storrs to pursue the doctorate. When I arrived there, I called up Wentworth and asked for my old job back. I was not used to an agricultural school. The job at Wentworth had just been filled, and so I stayed. | |
| Dr. Warren Campbell became my mentor, and from him I learned how to adjust my mindset to new things, to challenge ideation that appears too concrete and too over-generalized, and to relish pushing the envelope, even without the resources of a place such as MIT. I wrote what I believe to be one of the first microcomputer-based software systems for digital signal acquisition, editing, and processing. I still am amazed that I can buy a more sophisticated piece of software for $69.00 now...it took two years of intense effort then. | |
| I received my Ph.D. from UCONN and the offer of a temporary, terminal, one-year appointment at UCLA. Tom Harmon, the UCLA organist and department chair at the time, interviewed me; he supported my activities and progress in those years, and one appointment led to another. | |
| Early on, I met Professor Edward C. Carterette of the Department of Psychology at UCLA. The first meeting I will never forget. We talked for hours and drew diagrams of new research on the blackboard (we are still working on some aspects of it). I had heard he was difficult, but I found him to be the most generous, and gifted, person I have ever met. He has style. | |
| I am still at UCLA. The professional side of my academic career is evident from the other parts of my site. | |
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