2024 Wrap Up

Happy 2025! Last year, I didn’t get to this till March, but I’m proud to say I’m writing this on Dec. 31, 2024.

Like I keep saying, it’s nice to look back, take stock of what happened, and reflect a bit. Archiving all of this along the way is me smelling the roses while it’s happening and helping me be able to write this blog a little faster. Let’s get to it!

Two and a half years since retiring from the military, things still haven’t changed much and might’ve actually gotten busier. Gigs with Herr Metal, Dr.FU, Nowhere Men, and Eyes of the Nile continue as the classical stuff does.

EOTN have been traveling a lot more. In January, we drove down to Florida for two shows - Conduit in Orlando and the Heavy Metal Beach Party in Miami Beach. This was a Saturday night send off party for the 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise (the biggest heavy metal cruise in the world!) the following day. We shared the stage with about 5 other bands (all using my kit-ugh) and the let’s just say, making it all happen was a bit of a cluster. But the gig itself was a total blast. Completely random, my friend Javon happened to be in town playing with the Cleveland Orchestra and was staying across the street! We even got a visit from Bobby Koelble, the guitarist from Death, and our sound engineer/drummer friend from NOVA, James Alesio. If that wasn’t enough, the husband and wife photography team of Glenn and Wendy Woodell who usually shoot us in Virginia Beach just happened to be down there as well!

We were also featured on a couple more podcasts - Matt’s Mosh Pit and Metal Euporia!

We continue to perform at Tally Ho, Elevation 27, State Theatre, Orange County Fair, Phantom Power, and added some new venues - Amos Southend (NC), Ember Music Hall (Richmond-where 3 of my hometown friends surprised me with a visit!), ODC (MD), Conduit (Orlando), Recher (Baltimore), and Broken Goblet (PA). Next year, we’re heading to Pittsburgh (at least twice), Rochester, McHenry, IL; Dunellan, NJ; and more to be announced soon. The Orange County Fair is always a good time since for the past two years we’ve been joined by Chris Caffery (Savatage, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Doro) on stage for a couple songs.

We made the obligatory stop to Stephen Keeler’s amazing Rock Fantasy Records and filmed an amazing video that we used to reveal the complete album we would play at the August Tally Ho show. Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15oMUh76fu/

Check out our schedule and all other info at https://www.eyesofthenile.com/

In the classical world, the biggest news is that I’ve been appointed Principal Percussionist/Assistant Timpanist of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. I’ve been playing with the ASO on and off for the past 15+ years with some concerts as Principal, so it’s an honor to take on this role for real. I’m looking forward to what the future holds for this orchestra! Highlights of this past season include Appalachian Spring, Carnival Overture, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite, Shostakovich 5, Carmina Burana, Higdon’s Concerto 4-3, and Gavilan’s Piano Concerto (hardest vibraphone part I ever played!).

Other performances include the goth rock Sanctus show in Melbourne, FL (the second of three times I’d be in FL in ‘24), Andrew Simpson Ensemble (performing music composed by Andrew for silent films), American Festival Pops Orchestra, American Pops (Michelle Yeoh in attendance!), a clinic at Marshal Middle School, my debut with the 21st Century Consort, and a handful of church gigs. I’m continuing teaching at Catholic University and helping coach the amazing kids at Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestras. This summer I also helped out the Williamsburg High School Band Camp. It was hot!

Here are some pics capturing the year in music.

This is the second year in a row I kept track of all the books I read, but I don’t think I shared on my blog yet. I love reading more and more and hope to dive into even more books in 2025. Here is what I read this year.

Concerts I went to - Metallica (Gillette Stadium!), Trans Siberian Orchestra, Atarashii Gakko (fun teenage catchy Japanese pop), Styx/Foreigner/John Waite, Slipknot, and Ottoboke Beaver (ferocious Japanese punk/metal).

It’s always nice to contribute to new music and that happened again when I was asked to record some more songs for the new, full length Animal Ion album due out January 18. I’m on the songs “Tuff,” “I Won’t Change,” and “One Track Mind.” You can also listen to some tunes here.

I did some traveling - Florida 3 times all for musical reasons (one of them I can’t reveal till 2025), Tennessee to visit my Dad on his 90th birthday-

Then MA for my niece’s baby shower (Greyson!) I went up again for Xmas and got to spend more time with the little cutie.

In June, I took a trip to the beautiful city of Toronto. Of course, I hit every Rush site I could handle.

Enough said!

Cool art, but the location is pretty dreary.

Legislative Assembly of Ontario, where the Moving Pictures cover was shot.

Where Rush recorded the live album, "All the World's a Stage"

Rush on the Walk of Fame

Henderson Brewery-home of Rush beer!

Oh, there are other things in Toronto! I also hit Casa Loma, CN Tower, Hockey Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls, Toronto Islands, St. Lawrence Market, Nathan Philip’s Square, Harbourfront, Music Garden, Kensington Market, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Oh, and an amazing dinner at Antler.

Well, I think that about sums things up. Here is to another eventful year. On the horizon is a trip to Cancun, China, and Iceland. Maybe I’ll fit some gigs in between that too. Happy New Year!!

Michael Colgrass (1932-2019)

In 1995, I was a sophomore at UMASS Lowell. My teacher and percussion ensemble director, Jeff Fisher, decided to do a “mini-Colgrass festival” that semester. Half of the program would be dedicated to some of Colgrass’s percussion works. Of course, I never heard of Michael Colgrass. I say “of course” because I was such a late bloomer to the classical world and wasn’t until college where I developed as a serious player, played mallets, and learned about classical percussion. Before this, I didn’t know a thing except playing drums in a band. Not that that was a bad thing and proved to be invaluable down the road, but…anyway…a friend and I were asked to perform a snare solo from his Six Unaccompanied Solos for Snare Drum. Considering I never played a “legit” solo in my life and the rest of the program were ensemble pieces, this felt like quite the honor. Here it is, hair and all. And getting out of there as soon as possible after for some reason…

When I was at UMASS Lowell in 1995, Jeff Fisher, the percussion ensemble director programmed a "mini Colgrass festival" consisting of one half of the program dedicated to Michael Colgrass's percussion pieces.

During the concert, Jeff mentioned a story about Colgrass freelancing in NYC. He was walking down the street and didn’t know whether or not he was coming or going to/from the gig! It was soon after that he decided to become a full time composer. This story stuck with me for some reason.

Three years later in 1998, I was a student at the New England Conservatory and the wind ensemble I was in was preparing Colgrass’s “Urban Requiem.” The piece was a beast to prepare-each percussionist’s station of instruments in specific locations around the stage. Mine consisted of 3 separate stations-a steel drum part (an instrument I never played before and included solo part with clarinet-that was hard!), general percussion, and a drumset station in front of the conductor where you were basically part of a jazz/bop combo later in the piece. I don’t remember if I knew that Colgrass would be there or not, but lo and behold, there was the man himself at one of the rehearsals. The story I heard years ago permanently etched in my brain, I enjoyed getting the chance to ask him about this. If it were today, there would be a selfie involved. I left Jeff a voice message telling him that I told Colgrass the story I heard years ago 3 years ago. He was floored that I met and told Colgrass this, but mostly that I heard and remembered the story at all!

Later that year at NEC, I learned about Colgrass’s book, My Lessons with Kumi (maybe he told me?) which was all about performance anxiety. Since I was playing recitals and starting to take orchestra auditions, I needed all the help I could get. I used a couple of the tactics inside, but mainly enjoyed the great “Karate Kid” like read.

Many years later while a member of the US Navy Band, I was performing a lot of “new music” on the side. In 2007, I finally had the chance to perform some movements of Colgrass’s “Variations for 4 Drums and Viola” with my friend Rebecca Kletzker-Steele. “4 Drums” (rototoms) has been a staple in the repertoire and I’ve been itching to do it forever. We played it on a couple occasions and was a blast to put together and perform. Check out the “Finale” here-

Even though I didn’t have a lot of experience with his pieces and our meeting was brief, his music was introduced to me while I was developing my classical musician skills. Many years later, it’s time to honor him and break out some of his music again! Where do I start?

RIP Michael Colgrass (1932-2019)