What I'm Doing Now

(This is my now page. You should make one too.)

28 years after starting the first one I am finally going to get a Master’s degree! I ended up being “kicked out” of grad school back in the day because I was on the road playing gigs too much to go to class. (The call I got from my mentor, Sam Pilafian, telling me I was getting “kicked out” is a cherished memory because he was so incredibly proud.)

I am starting a one-year program to get an MBA in Arts Innovation through the Global Leaders Institute. I will be in a small cohort of 60 people and it is a lot of group work focusing on two things: entrepreneurship and innovation, both within the arts. I’m really excited to get to work!

It took me until I was 26 years into my professional career but I finally played a gig in North Dakota! That makes 48 states. And I will be performing with the faculty brass quintet at Kinhaven in Vermont next month to make 49. Anybody in Hawaii need a tuba player to finish this off?

I am oh so close to releasing my first ever online course. It is titled “Practice Room Mastery: The Four M’s Method - Double Your Practice Room Results Through Mastering Mindset, Momentum, Motivation, and Mindfulness.” It is a culmination of everything I’ve ever learned about practicing and I am really happy with how it is turning out. All of the videos are shot and edited and it will be released soon. Stay tuned for more details!

I just got home from a 17-show tour with Alliance Brass. It was my first extended tour with a brass quintet in over a decade and I had a blast. One nice thing about traveling is seeing good friends and I got to have lunch with the legendary Marty Hackleman at Q39 in Kansas City. It was great being on stage so much.

It was an honor to present a live taping of The Brass Junkies at the International Women’s Brass Conference at The Hartt School last week! I was joined by guest co-host Jennifer Wharton who was amazing as always. We interviewed the Principal Trombone of the Metropolitan Opera, Sasha Romero, and euphonium player and former Lance LaDuke student Nicole Guccione. It felt so good to be back! I won’t be releasing this until I get some more episodes in the can which realistically may not happen until the fall. But the show is officially coming back. It’s been too long…

Filed under always be ready, I got a call from Rodney Marsalis at 9:30 pm one night in January asking if I could play a gig in New York City the next night. The regular tuba player got delayed and missed his flight and I was able to fill in at the APAP Conference which was wild because the last time I was there was exactly 25 years ago. (Those numbers are starting to get big!) It’s always an honor to share the stage with a musician like Rodney!

I performed four separate weeks with the North Carolina Symphony in October and December and I am happy to report that that orchestra is criminally underrated! Seriously. Special musicians throughout all of the sections. Some stunning music making going on down there. I was particularly fond of the all-John Williams program we did which included my first ever crack at the Jaws solo. A special thanks to Seth Horner for the invitation. I hope to be back!

I also made my debut with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Again, great group! I had somehow never been to Princeton, New Jersey before and I found a store that was essentially a Japanese 7-Eleven and I spent way too much money. A thank you to Jonathan Fowler for the invitation!

Last summer I was a judge at the Jeju International Brass & Percussion Competition. There were seven tuba judges from around the world and I was honored to represent the United States. The level of playing was truly impressive. And so were the black sand beaches I got to enjoy as well as the volcano I got to hike. Jeju is a special place that everyone should visit and I very much hope to return!

I also got to return to my old stomping grounds, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, to teach the incredible students there. BUTI was where I first had the privilege of working with Sam Pilafian and it has a very special place in my heart. A big thank you to Ben Vasko for the invitation.

In the spring I presented a clinic on practicing at two different regional tuba conferences. I presented “10 Strategies for Building Momentum in the Practice Room” at both the Southeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference in Murfreesboro, TN and at the Northeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference in Fairfax, VA. I also performed a solo on the final concert of NERTEC, a piece titled Let There Be Funk. I was really, really happy with how it went (which isn’t always the case so you try to appreciate it when it is!)

Last spring saw visits to a number of schools for clinics and residencies including Hartt, UNC Greensboro, and East Tennessee State University as well as various online clinics including Lynn Conservatory and Middle Tennessee State. I love connecting with college students and encouraging them to get started on what comes after college, whatever that may be, now rather than waiting until they get handed their diploma. I also love to encourage them to dream big - ideally bigger than they are comfortable doing.

Last March I made my Washington National Opera debut! I played on-stage sousaphone in an adaptation of Offenbach’s La Périchole that is set in Prohibition-era New Orleans called Songbird. There was no pit for this opera. It was just 11 of us on stage on a bandstand and I played probably two thirds of the time - everything from New Orleans street beat grooves to precarious, one-off opera-style downbeats that follows a singer’s recitative. One foot in each world was challenging and wonderful. The lead was opera superstar Isabel Leonard whose performance was enchanting. It was an h0nor to share the stage with these musicians.

My world was rocked when my dear friend and most frequent creative collaborator, Lance LaDuke, passed away in December at the age of 56. He suffered a very serious fall and was never able to recover. I miss him every single day and I’m only now starting to feel like I’m getting my brain wrapped around it all. He is so dearly missed as a friend, colleague, and human. Hug your loved ones.

Lance and I started talking about impact about five years ago. Everything we did, both together and individually, was put through the lens of will this have a lasting impact on the world. And if the answer was no, we didn’t do it. Or we phased it out. His passing has inspired a really big idea that I am moving forward. It is big enough and scary enough that part of me is telling myself that I can’t do it. But those are the ideas you lean into because the scary ones are the most impactful ones. Stay tuned…

The Brass Junkies is currently on hiatus but that is ending soon! And I just released an episode of The Entrepreneurial Musician for the first time in 9 months. It feels good to be back!

I’m currently brainstorming the formation of a new ensemble. Itching to get creative. Stay tuned!

The first new project from Hitz Academy is called Inside the Practice Room. It kicked off with Jeff Nelsen of Canadian Brass, Principal Trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra Michael Sachs, Patrick Sheridan, Rex Richardson and Julie Landsman and Weston Sprott. More events will be announced soon!

Winning the Audition with Hiram Diaz was really incredible. He is such a gifted teacher. He blew me away.

After years of talking about doing it I finally launched a website just for The Entrepreneurial Musician. Check out tem.fm and let me know what you think!

What I’m Listening To: Phish! Those who know me well are rolling their eyes and saying of course I am. But I actually go through phases with them. I just saw two shows in Manchester, New Hampshire over the weekend and I will be seeing them four more times this summer. I never feel more at home than I do at a Phish concert.

What I’m Watching: I’ve been watching a lot of comedy clips lately - particularly Norm Macdonald. The world is a scary place and really clever comedy is helping me navigate all of that.

What I’m Reading: I finally finished Resurrection by David Remnick. I started it probably 15 years ago and just didn’t get too far. It is the follow-up to one of my favorite books ever written, Lenin’s Tomb, about the collapse of the Soviet Union. I’ve read that one either two or three times. Resurrection is about the changes in Russia after the collapse and it is fascinating. Glad I tried again! Up next: My first time ever reading Crime and Punishment.

What I’m Making: The practicing course and TEM episodes.

What I’m Practicing: I’ve practicing a lot of improv lately - specifically call and response exercises from Shelley Berg’s wonderful Chop Monster series. I have been using a website to transpose each play-along exercise into all 12 keys and tracking how each one is going in each respective key on a spreadsheet. It is kicking my butt in all the best ways!


(Last updated June 23, 2025)