My professional music career began as a 14-year-old tuba player in a Dixieland band at Cedar Point amusement park in my hometown of Sandusky, Ohio.  After high school, I 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 my four years at Mount Union, I 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.