When I was ten years old I experienced my first symphony orchestra performance at Jones Hall in Houston, Texas. As soon as they began playing, indescribably intense sensations raced up and down my spine. Falling backward into my plush seat in the state-of-the-art performance hall with a thump I gripped the armrests as the music washed over me, making me feel like I was falling uncontrollably through space and time. I had never felt anything like it before and have never again felt the sensation that first live symphony concert induced.
Thirty-four years later I leapt out of an airplane hoping the experience of free fall would allow me to feel those thrilling sensations again. Not even close. Skydiving was a thrill, no doubt about it, but nothing approaching the thrill of hearing my first live orchestral performance. Only live music can do the trick and although other live musical performances since then have produced similar thrills rushing up and down my spine, none of them have ever been as intense as that first time so long ago. None of them have sent me into sonic sensory free fall.
So I began composing my own music in attempts to create a piece which will reproduce that first spine-tingling sensation of youth, the latest is a tune titled The Jump audibly describing my skydiving experience with music. It's included on the Music page of this web site.
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