One of my first influences

Lately there has been a thread of comments about a picture a friend of mine posted on Facebook.  It is a picture of a mug that has a depiction of the theme of our marching band show from my junior year in high school.  This thread has really got me thinking about my high school band director John Frantz.  He is one of my first and my most important musical influence.  Mr. Frantz would always be encouraging to the students.  He genuinely wanted the students to succeed.  He is a large part of the reason why I decided to pursue a degree in music.  Mr. Frantz was a good musician in addition to being a great teacher.  Not only did this give validity to the comments and instructions he gave us, but we were able to see the results of hard work and practicing.

I remember that he is the person who turned me on to the music of Chicago.  The first album I borrowed from him and listened to was Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall, a four record set.  At the time I was blown away by the idea of a rock band with horns.  Because of him, my love of music snowballed.  I actively searched out different thing to listen to in order to expand my knowledge of music.  Here I am now sixteen years removed from high school and I still try to find new and exciting things to listen to.

Much of who I am as a musician and as a person stems from Mr. Frantz's influence.