The austere-looking Sergei Rachmaninoff

Today I finished a 3-performance run of Rachmaninoff’s “All-Night Vigil” with Cappella Romana in Portland and Seattle.  What an adventure!  It was my first time to perform the entire work, and also my first time to perform the beautiful (and deathly challenging) tenor solos.  As I sit at home and recover, I [...]

Soiree Recital, originally uploaded by Behold How Free.
I’m enjoying spending this week and weekend in Walla Walla, Washington performing with the Walla Walla Symphony. I’m performing with frequent collaborator conductor Yaakov Bergman and great soloists and new friends Beth Madsen Bradford, Charles Robert Stephens, and Sarah Parnicky. We performed a recital of opera [...]

I’m really excited to participate as a musician and actor with this upcoming show from “Dreams Landing.”  The show is a collaboration with Playback Theater.  It is a mixture of theater, dance, music, and spoken word drawn from collected dreams that were submitted.
More info on my performances page.

I wanted to post just two more things about my trip to Greece with Cappella Romana earlier this month.
First, I made a video with some of the highlights of our trip. Included in the video are clips of the scenery, our concerts, recordings, and also some Greek folk dancing. Enjoy!

Secondly, our group was [...]

I’m so excited about my trip with Cappella Romana to Greece in just over a month! We are trying to raise addition support to be able to make a recording of Byzantine music in an authentic, 6th-century Byzantine church on the Greek Island of Paros.

I’ve got a few “Craig-isms’ to share from rehearsals this week with Craig Hella Johnson and the Victoria Bach Festival musicians. I love the way these great images come up in rehearsal.
“Burn all of your undergarments and just let it soar.”
“Just dots on a chalkboard.”
“Just like popcorn.”
“Get it out of your system, all that [...]

I’m back home from spending an amazing week in Finland.  My friend and colleague, Markus Yli-Jokipii, with whom I worked at the Oregon Bach Festival, was so kind to invite me to perform the Bach St. John Passion.  The performance was with his ensemble in Turku, Finland called Kuninkaantien muusikot (Musicians of the King’s Road).
Below [...]

I am starting to see the finish line.
The past 2 months have been the most intense and grueling season of performing I have ever experienced.  It started right after the New Year with a week of rehearsals and performances with Cappella Romana.
Then I began full-time rehearsals for “The Elixir of Love” while simultaneously commencing work [...]

“Out of Eden” has been going beautifully with Opera Theater Oregon. There still 3 performances left if you haven’t seen it yet.
For me, this is one of my favorite shows I’ve ever done, and also one of the best roles I’ve had the chance to play.  It has been an awesome journey uncovering Werther and [...]

Portland Opera To Go just returned from a week of touring along the North Oregon Coast.  It was a beautiful week, and in between shows we had some time to visit the beach and other great attractions along the coast.  Abby was even able to join me on tour for a couple days.  We were [...]