of the New York Philharmonic.

Well, I grew up in Chicago, and my

brother started playing an instrument, and

so I wanted to kind of copy him, and so

I picked the clarinet and fell in love with it

after they told me the saxophone was

too big for me. Some of my first early memories

of music were my brother practicing

at home for hours and hours a day,

and it was amazing to have a very

close role model in music to kind of

show me the ropes — show me how

to do things: how to audition, how to

practice, how to have that drive and

that fire. So it really inspired me at

an early age. We still perform together.

We just formed a trio together within the last

year, and we're recording together, and

it's pretty exciting. We have a few projects

on the way, and more to come.

I was principal clarinet at the Met [Opera] for ten years.

At the Met there were two principals.

There are kind of co-principals for

each section, and so we have to kind of split

the work, because there are so many, so many more

performances really week-to-week.

Being Principal Clarinet at the Philharmonic is

different than being principal clarinet at the Met

because of the intensity of the

performances, of how long they are, so

performing at the Philharmonic is kind of

more like a sprint, and at the Met

it's more like a marathon. So you have to

pace yourself a little bit differently.

The energy is slightly different in

the pit than it is on stage. What's great

about starting at the Philharmonic is that

some of the pieces I'd studied my

entire life and had never performed with

orchestra before the first time onstage

with the New York Philharmonic — so that

was really exciting. I think my first

Rachmaninoff Second Symphony was here

with the Philharmonic. My first "Capriccio espagnol"

was here with the

Philharmonic. Lots of great pieces.

So at the end of 2008, out of the blue I get a

phone call from one of Yo-Yo Ma's

managers, and they said, "There's a

performance opportunity we want to

talk to you about, and it's

at the Inauguration of Barack Obama."

And you know, at first I kind of thought

it was a joke, and I thought,

"I don't know what's going on," but it

actually was that invitation. And so it

ended up being just an amazing part of my life.

I'll never forget it. You could see

hundreds of thousands of people on the

Mall, and we were right behind the

President when he took the oath of office.

So I mean it was an amazing experience.

The woodwind section at the Philharmonic

is really great. I love playing with my

colleagues. You know we just, we have a

way of blending together but

also coming out of the texture and

being kind of soloists when need be.

The personalities are really great, and I have

a really great time playing with everybody.