Birthplace: San Francisco Grew up: San Diego Started playing: Age 10 Education: Indiana University Began with CSO: 1985 Non-CSO Activities: chamber music and teaching Favorite music: indigenous, primitive and aboriginal music of the world In my iPod: podcasts of Radio Lab, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and Scientific American Outside ensembles or groups: Quartet Amici, Camerata Main Teachers: Herman Silberman, Mimi Zweig When not rehearsing or performing on stage with the CSO, I spend my time...kayaking, hiking, camping. If I had not become a professional musician, I may have become an...Explorer. To unwind, I listen to…my wife’s lovely voice. In the car, I listen to…my wife’s lovely voice. My current ring tone is…you guessed wrong, it’s ring1.mid. The last book I read was…probably the last book I’ll read for a while. Most people would be surprised to learn that…I rarely listen to music. The craziest thing I have ever done is…try to catch a leopard shark with my bare hands. My dream is…to find a smaller, slower shark. The non-musical accomplishment that I am most proud of is…discovering the 350 million fossil crinoid Goniocrinus Saettii. What is your guilty pleasure? I’m not telling you. My favorite vacation is…sea kayaking. The last movie I saw was…not nominated for any Oscars. To prepare for a performance, I…drink strong coffee and warm so loudly the harp can’t tune. If I could choose to play another instrument, it would be the…harp. I also play the…violin, mandolin, tenor banjo and tenor guitar. My most embarrassing musical moment was…forgetting to open my music for my college senior recital. An extremely positive musical experience I have had was…playing my college senior recital from memory. A profound experience, musical or otherwise, that has shaped or deeply influenced my approach to music would be…listening to great student cello recitals at Indiana University. If I could spend a day with any composer, if would be…spent asking for proof of music theory.