2005 TCU Cliburn Institute

I grew up in a musical family. My father, (may he rest in peace), was a charter member and, for many years, Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, playing under conductors Jacques Singer, Antal Dorati, Walter Hendle, Paul Kletzki, George Solti, Donald Johannos, Anshel Brusilov, and Eduardo Mata. He also played the Dallas Opera, Ice Capades, commercial jingle recording sessions, Casa Manana musicals, and, with his strolling violin ensemble, "The Brounoff Continentals," at restaurants and private parties. My mother was a college voice major at "North Texas State" who met my dad when she was in the chorus and dad was in the pit orchestra of the Dallas summer Starlight Musicals.

At age three I was pounding out the rhythm to the "Rites of Spring," reciting " E very G ood B oy D oes F ine" and "FACE," (the lines and spaces, respectively, of the treble clef), and recognizing that, "The white note between the two black notes is D." Between ages 6 to18 I took piano lessons with Lazelle Light of Dallas, and Anna Taborelli of Busto Arsizio, Italy. For awhile I also took violin lessons, first with my Dad and then with the late Marjorie Fulton of Dallas, but I am afraid the violin never "took." With the piano your arms get a whole lot less tired; and since you are always out of tune anyway, it's no big deal.

With the foregoing background, naturally I stopped studying music altogether, majored in Psychology in college and went to law school, (with a brief intermission for military service, during which I gave a piano recital in the face of an approaching typhoon). However, I continued to play for my own private enjoyment. One day, while living in Syracuse, NY, I was playing away, when a violist with the Syracuse Symphony passing by outside heard me, knocked on my door and offered to play chamber music sometime. She then produced the score to the Brahms G-minor piano quartet, which I learned in 3 months, practicing daily. From there, I kept my hand in as music director for community theater musical productions in the Dallas area while practicing law.

After reading about the first Cliburn mateur ompetition after the fact, I resolved to enter the next competition, which I did in 2000 at age 53 without benefit of a teacher. Of my performance I can say that I did not fall off the piano bench. Realizing that I needed a teacher to advance further, I studied with Dr. Tamas Ungar of the TCU piano faculty from 2000 until 2004, until an appointment to the federal bench--judicial, not piano--took me back to Syracuse, where I am now studying with Dr. Fred Karpoff of the Syracuse, University faculty. Meanwhile, with Dr. Ungar's help, I entered the 3 rd Cliburn amateur competition, and advanced to the semi-final round. I also participated in the TCU Cliburn Institute, where I performed chamber music with members of the Avalon Quartet in 2001, and where, in 2003, I was a winner of the concerto competition, and enjoyed the experience of a lifetime performing with the Fort Worth Symphony.

Here I am again. Who knows what musical riches lie ahead...