What do you do?
At Drake, I’m a professor of music and chair of the music department. Outside of work, I am a clarinetist with the Des Moines Symphony and also the orchestra’s personnel manager.
Why do you do what you do?
From the music performance part, it allows me to express myself. I’m generally a shy person, and music is how I talk and how I show my emotions; I can be mad, I can be motivated—it all comes through when I play. I teach because I really enjoy watching someone grow, watching someone mature into a strong musician, I like working with this age because this is an important time in their life. I also like helping people; I like to resolve things, which is probably how I ended up being chair.
What’s the most interesting thing about you?
I guess one interesting thing is that I played on the soundtrack for the movie Hidalgo, so every year I receive between $7–12 in royalties from the Motion Picture Academy.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love to golf, mow my lawn, and just be outside. I grew up in California and was always outdoors. When I first moved to Iowa I had one coat that kept me warm if it was more than 45 degrees. I get cranky from about December to March 1 because I can’t go outside.