INTERVIEW QUESTIONS/TOPICS (discussion starters for human-interest articles)

• What has changed in the 25 years at 1st U;   in the downtown music scene?
• You are active in the graphic arts field as a graphic/web designer and commercial photographer. How do you compare your musical endeavors as a realtime performing artist?
• Do you relate to your visual arts endeavors in the same way as your approach to musical interpretation?
• Both visual and performing arts require some amount of creative energies. Can you talk about your approach to creativity?
• Regarding composition and improvisation, I see that you have a side research project to classify and investigate composers' and improvisers' skills/approaches/energies/characteristics to the behavioral analysis of MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator).  Are you saying there are introverts and extroverts in the world of composers?
• You will be featuring several of your own choral compositions in the concert, can you tell us how those came to be?
• You're kidded by your organist colleagues for playing improvisations during the church service postludes - why do you prefer to improvise instead of play organ repertoire literature?
• Many people say that musical composing is the same as musical improvisation. What's your take on that relationship?
• You're knowledgeable and experienced as an organbuilder/maintainer. How does that balance with performing on the pipe organ? And do you ever have urges to avoid practicing to go and "fix" something you just noticed in the instrument?
• You began playing piano at age 4 and organ at age 8 - can you describe how you got started and what inspired you?
• You play both the piano and organ. Do you have a favorite?
• You describe the Durufle piece you've programmed on the concert as one of your "soul pieces" - can you tell us about that?
• Music has always been one of several professions for you. How do you balance your musical endeavors? Do you think you'd feel differently about music if it were your singular focus?
• Music was a minor subject area for you in college. How did you fit in time for classes and practicing amongst engineering labs and computer software projects?
• You rode public transportation an hour to your first organist-director audition in Pittsburgh. What attracted you to choral direction along with church organist responsibilities? What was your interview like?
• When you arrived at 1st U to prepare for your audition, you had to fix several things about the pipe organ. What was that like?
• You worked with one minister now for 25 years: how has the relationship with Barbara Merritt grown/changed over the years?
• In your choral rehearsals, you utilize a lot of (shorthand) "catch phrases" like slo-mo, single-step, and so on - what's that all about?
• You had a short sabbatical last spring in Washington DC. What did you learn there, and have you made any changes in the 1st U music program as a result?
• Running a music program can be expensive to budget for all the instrument purchase, maintenance, scores, soloists, instrumentalists. How have you been able to amass such a high level of musical resources with a nominal music budget each year?
• Your experiences in playing an Organ Concerto with the Boston Pops was less than routine. What happened?!
• You sometimes speak of leading a (mostly) volunteer church choir as the "care and feeding of volunteers" What do you mean by that.
• You were out of town when the church fire of 2000 occurred. How did you hear about it and what was your reaction?
• In the past ten years, you've brought the music program into the internet age. Please describe some of your innovations both on the web as well as using MIDI with your various instruments.
• It's been 25 years at 1st U, and 45 years in the profession. How do you keep going having all your weekends tied up?  How do you keep things from becoming "stale"?

Additional reference material that might suggest areas for discussion: Unplublished article