I’ve worn several hats over the course of my career.

Music

In music I’m a performer, composer, researcher, and educator in both jazz and classical music genres. As a performer, my current focus is on flute and voice, but a list of instruments I play includes; most of the baroque wind instruments, the Balinese gamelan instruments (suling bali, saron, and reong), both the blues and chromatic harmonicas, the trumpet, various keyboards (esp. early synths), and several experimental instruments of my own design.

As a composer, I have created numerous works for both classical and jazz ensembles. I’m currently working on a piece for 32 flutes in 31 EDO (equal divisions of the octave). The players are grouped into 8 quartets that are arranged surrounding the audience.

I have spent almost four decades exploring psycho-acoustics, especially microtonal tunings.  I designed and built several experimental instruments – including a guitar with movable frets and collaborated in the construction of an organ that plays 43 notes per octave.  I’ve published articles on microtonal techniques for the flute, pitch perception, and the multi-dimensional representation of wave forms.

I’ve studied with Richard Davis, Paul Robeson, Les Thimmig, Roscoe Mitchell, Robert Dick, Doc Cheatham, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Frans Brüggen among many others.  

An abbreviated list of my credits include stints with Luther Allison and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and touring with many locally popular bands for several years. Also performances with Paquito D’Rivera,  Ben Sidran, Vassar Clements, Jimmy Schwall, Gordon Lightfoot, the Brüggen Quartet, several chamber groups and classical ensembles. That includes being principal flutist in R. B. Schlather’s epic production of the opera “Mother of us All“. I also play in two different jazz quartets – M.2.Q (some performances), and ‘The Quartet”, both of which I co-founded. I’ve recorded on numerous albums over the years in multiple genres.

Network Security

As a network security consultant and designer, I’ve worked on securing large-scale infrastructure (hospitals, hydro, sewer systems, chemical industrial plants), and have designed and built several networks that sustain > 10.000 endpoints.  Those networks integrated HVAC, security cameras, telephones, smart phones, TV over IP, other high-bandwidth media, printers, motion and fire alarms, building access control, climate monitors, as well as hundreds (sometimes thousands) of industrial process controllers.

Toy Design and Manufacture

As president and co-founder of Design Science Toys, I developed (or helped to develop) over 40 different toys (see in detail here). Many were inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller and have won several international design awards and were the focus of numerous museum exhibits.  During that period I worked on projects with NOAA, JPL, the mechanical engineering department at M.I.T., and several other schools.  I later designed and built most of the automated production equipment for my own toy factory and wrote all of the code for the ERP and factory-floor control.

My research into the geometry of one of our toys, “Smiles Tiles”, revealed an intriguing anomaly in the math that describes the quasi-periodic tiling used in the puzzle. At the G4 science conference I discussed this with IBM’s head of cryptography – and 15 years later that anomaly evolved (thanks to IBM’s cryptography team) into the new world-standard for encryption.

Culinary

I served over a year and a half as the personal chef to the French Minister of Agriculture, was briefly a replacement chef for the then Governor of Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, and have served as sous or executive chef in several high-profile restaurants. As executive chef at “The Herb Garden”, Craig Clairborne awarded us 3 stars.  I was a co-founder and CTO of Primo Piatto, a chain of five gourmet Italian restaurants in Manhattan.

Life

I’m the father of two amazing adult sons (both excellent musicians!). I currently reside in the Mid-Hudson Valley (along with my Australian Dingo, Tabriz), where I remain centered on my work, my serenity, and maintaining the lowest carbon footprint I can manage.