ABOUT ME

I'm friendly and open-minded and love a good conversation or debate. I don't have a problem expressing myself (quite the opposite, maybe?) but I've also changed my mind on lots of things - from big social issues to little things like how to best make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm never more serious than I absolutely have to be. Life's too short to not have fun living it.

I'm a transplant to the Twin Cities. Before that I played in orchestras in South Dakota and Kansas City and also the opera orchestra in Valencia, Spain. Prior to that an orchestra in Miami Beach, Florida. I grew up in Wisconsin though and spent most of my life there - my childhood in Green Bay and early adulthood in Madison.

PHILOSOPHY

Life isn't about the destination, it's about the journey. And I think if you've enjoyed the ride and left the planet a little better for it, you've done well.

If you don't like what you're doing or you don't find it satisfying, you're either doing it wrong or you shouldn't be doing it.

Dlaczego jestem na Couchsurfing

I've hosted occasionally but mostly have enjoyed using the community as a way to interact with others while traveling abroad.

Zainteresowania

I'm a musician by training, so all kinds of music - everything from Beethoven to EDM. I love photography - I won't pretend to be amazing, but mostly I just enjoy looking for beautiful things, both in the obvious and not so obvious. The journey is the reward, right? And in the summer, when I'm not at work or playing my horn, you can usually find me on my bike. Living just a few steps from the Mississippi River is an absolute blessing.

• photography
• cooking
• traveling
• music
• opera
• tennis
• road biking

Muzyka, filmy i książki

I've spent much of my life playing classical music for a living, so that's undoubtedly important to me. To me there's such an amazing world of expression and humanity in sound and I think the orchestra is such an amazing way to express the human existence.

But that doesn't mean I'm a snob! I love all kinds of music. RHCP, Elton John, I can even find redeeming value in Justin Bieber if I have to (maybe not "Baby").

I was never a movie person. That isn't to say I don't catch one from time to time, but most movie references are tragically lost on me.

I read a lot of social science and nonfiction. Fiction's a tougher sell with me. I wish it weren't but it is what it is. I liked Harry Potter and have been known to enjoy poetry. Pablo Neruda is awesome; living in Spain was a great excuse to learn enough Spanish to read his untranslated stuff and actually understand some of it!

Jedna niesamowita rzecz, którą zrobiłem(-am)

Visiting Chernobyl on a visit to Ukraine in 2012 was incredible. Watching the sunset from on top of a mountain outside of Bergen, Norway. A sunrise on top of a hostel roof in St. Petersburg, or over the Mediterranean when I lived in Valencia, Spain. Spending a day or two (maybe not successfully) trying to teach grammar at a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana.

Ucz innych, ucz się sam, udostępniaj

Need lessons on the horn? I'm your guy. I'm also pretty handy with computers and I love to cook.

Kraje, w których byłem(-am)

Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Switzerland, Ukraine

Kraje, w których mieszkałem(-am)

Norway, Spain