Here is a picture of me as a young lad, playing an Alexander that was rented to me by my middle school. I think this is the horn where I crushed the bell when I slipped and fell on my butt walking down the hallway one time. I used to sit on the case and have my friends push me along the slippery floor at my school.

When I was in Denver, I played this Schmidt horn that I bought from Chuck Kavalovski. I also won the SF Symphony job on this instrument.

My association with Jon Ring goes way back to 1978 when I was in the Berkshire Music Center Orchestra at Tanglewood and he was in the Young Artists Program. Here we're playing Fanfare for the Common Man, I think, during Tanglewood on Parade. Jon is 3rd from the left, and I am 4th. The names of almost everyone else escape me, except for fellow Oberlin alum Clark Driftmeier playing the tuba at the far right. If anyone can ID these folks, drop me a line.

While in Luzern, Bruce, Jon and I went to the shop of Josef Stocker, the alphorn maker, to try some instruments. After this, we got lost hiking in the Alps and had to hitch hike back to our hotel since we missed the last bus..

If you wanted to know what a Wagner Tuba looks like, here's the top half. I play 1st tuben whenever they are called for. I never played one before I got here, so it was definately a case of on-the-job training.

At Cazadero Performing Arts Camp, reveille happens at 7:15 am. I just got out of my sleeping bag 30 seconds before this picture was taken, so I decided to blast all the campers out of their bunks on my natural horn.

At Cragmont Elementary School, the kids really enjoyed it when I gradually assembled the alphorn!

Recently Jon and I had occasion to play alphorns at the German Consulate here in San Francisco. Why is my face a bit red? If you look closely, you can see a cold German beverage with a lemon on the steps. There's not much left in the glass.

In 1980, my friend Bill Bennett did this cartoon of me. I think that as I've grown older, I've gotten just a wee bit more humble than this cartoon shows me being. Although some people say that anyone with a home page can't be all that humble. Bill is now Principal Oboe here in San Francisco. Perhaps he's the one who needs a cartoon now...

Here's a picture of Dave and I at Grace cathedral this last Christmas. During the Bay Brass concert there, we played an arrangement of Silent Night, during which Jon Ring took a piece of cardboard and used it to cover the bell of Dave's alphorn, so that he in effect was playing "stopped" alphorn, and could thus play the whole melody! Fun, and in the big (7 second delay) acoustic of the cathedral, it sounded terrific.

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a day with Radovan Vlatkovic at Marlboro VT. He is my favorite horn soloist -- you must beg, borrow or steal a copy of his Strauss Horn Concerti CD, sadly out of print. Besides being a terrific player, he is the nicest guy around.

Several years ago, I had the honor of playing the National Anthem at Candlestick Park before a ballgame. My sole goal was to hold the high note long enough so the fans would cheer. They did. Also, spelling doesn't seem to be the strong suit of the scoreboard operator -- maybe it's just me, but it's the principal of the thing that's important. Plus how 'bout that great Jumbotron shot of Will Clark's crotch?