Welcome to my new website. A huge thank you to Ashley Opie, my webmaster, and Cathy Strauss, my wife and editor. This site would not exist without their incredible expertise and patience.

OK, so why a blog? Music is my life and passion—something I, and many others, believe is a universal language and a key component to making the world a more unified and nurturing place. Sometimes we listen, sometimes we play, but sometimes we use words to discuss music. I also have other passions that satellite my music, and also fortify and support understanding of musical ideas. My family, cooking (eating), sports, animals, and politics are some of the current satellites orbiting my personal solar system.

I’ll be using this forum to get my voice out to anyone who cares (hi Mom!) about my thoughts on all kinds of issues that come up—either on the website itself or in the ether. And, I enjoy getting thoughts out of my mind and formulating ideas somewhere accessible to others. Now that my relatively new career path as an entrepreneurial violist (chamber musician, teacher, recitalist) has begun in earnest, I’d love to experiment with blogging as a nice way to communicate. I tend to concentrate on my family, music, students, food, sports, recipes, politics, chefs, pets, traveling—oh, and did I mention I like to cook?

Again, welcome! I look forward to hearing from you, so please feel free to email me about anything that comes to mind.