One of my favorite classes during my senior year of high school was literature with Mrs. Faulks. She was a small graying woman who always wore colorful but matronly dresses and if she had not taught from the front of the room next to her desk you would not have…

When I was about 5 or 6 years old my grandfather bought me a pair of red suspenders which I loved to wear. To this day I primarily wear braces or suspenders, owning a dozen or more but maybe only two belts. I was disappointed when wearing braces became the…

Coffee is a necessity for me. I am an early riser. Always have been. I’ve never needed much sleep and once I’m awake I do not like just laying in bed waiting. So, I just get up and prepare and drink my morning coffee. Strong and black. Just because I…

The Pink Tea Cup was a soul food restaurant in the West Village. Their salmon croquettes were an amazing meal. Breakfast was an abundance for the cost and your coffee cup was never empty. There was no better place to eat in all of NYC. That is where I met…

At some point the gig comes to an end. It is the nature of the business. I do not dwell on this. When a show or musical performance closes I usually reflect on the opportunity and experience and then move on to what ever is next. I am not one…

I always loved record stores. Since my early teens I would spend hours thumbing through bins of new and old collections of just about everything. I never left those places without purchasing one or more LPs. I also loved musical instrument stores though I usually never left with a tuba…

PART 3: TEACHING — I remember receiving the phone call from Boris’s son Eric informing me that his father suffered a heart attack and passed away. I was shocked, sad and frightened. I needed to walk. And so, I did. Leaving my Brooklyn apartment, I soon found myself a few miles across the Brooklyn…

PART 2: PRACTICING It was at one specific lesson with Boris Matueswitch that changed my practice habits. Each week he would assign me a violin etude study as well as specific passages from one or more of the musical pieces he had given me to work on. I knew I…

PART 1: PERFORMING The last paid gig for DC Ambiance, the Gypsy Jazz Group I perform with, was March 14th, 2020 at Haydee’s in the Mt Pleasant area of DC. It was one of our regularly booked venues. As the virus, its devastation, and the warnings spread, we played our…