Jim’s professional music career began as a 14-year-old tuba player in a Dixieland band the Cedar Point amusement park in his hometown of Sandusky, Ohio.  After high school, he attended Mount Union College where Carl H. Kandel, a fantastic music educator, had developed a unique brass ensemble environment. The Mount Union Brass Choir played nearly every weekend at a church service or a symposium somewhere in Ohio or eastward. In his time at Mount Union, Jim had the opportunity to play, arrange, and conduct brass music at Carnegie Hall and Riverside Church in NYC, the Washington National Cathedral in DC, Yale University, Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem (PA), and other prestigious venues.