I saw the Freedom Band’s inaugural performance in the 1978 parade, but I didn’t think that marching oboe worked very well! Nonetheless, I was moved by a phone call from my clarinetist friend Lee Francke and joined the group in 1979. I marched flute for the first several years and I’ve played oboe in the Concert Band ever since. I see the Band as my way to make a political statement through music.
I’m passionate about making music, and I’ve played in ensembles continuously from the middle of college through the present day, including University Orchestra, Prometheus Symphony, L’Harmonie du Chemin du Fer du Nord (the wind band of the French railroad that was founded in 1893), and most recently the Golden Gate Park Band, a professional group playing concerts continuously since 1883.
After retiring from my day job as a research assistant for the computer science department at UC Berkeley, I recently completed a master’s degree is music performance at Sacramento State University.