What are your “day job” and Interests?

I’m officially “retired” but as active as ever helping manage AMC’s operations, technology, finance, and strategy.  Prior to that I was an elected Member of the Technical Staff at Motorola and held Project Management Professional certification as a consultant in the transportation, finance, and healthcare industries.  I have degrees in Astronomy from UCLA and Northwestern and taught Astronomy as a Maricopa Colleges adjunct for over 30 years.  I still Zoom in to weekly astrophysics colloquia at UCLA and the U of A.

Why is it important for you to be a member of AMC?

Before I joined AMC and began working with Scott Youngs, I thought I knew it all as a singer – but then discovered a whole new world of choral singing emphasizing listening first to create an ensemble sound that’s truly greater than the sum of its individual parts.  Working with other skilled and like-minded singers, we’ve taken on more challenging – and rewarding – choral works, including Arizona, American, and world premieres that keep me discovering new dimensions of choral arts and new rewards as a life-long learner.

What impact do you want AMC to have on the community?

We’re dedicated to giving our audiences the “AMC Experience” of the sheer beauty of sound and poetry in our concerts, and over recent seasons our musical capabilities have grown significantly.  But we want to be more than an inwardly-focused singing club; we need to reach out to the greater Phoenix community to take our joy of singing together to a wider audience.  We’ve begun educational outreach to build choral music programs at a partner school, the Global Academy of Phoenix, and with the staff and residents of Circle the City in downtown Phoenix.  We’re small and face a lot of challenges, but hope to use our skills and talents to benefit those who may not have the opportunity to hear great choral music.