Describe your role with Portland Opera
Principal Flute; I have been in the orchestra since 1985
What music/book/movie/show/poem/place/moment is currently inspiring you?
Ralph Vaughn Williams, especially Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
What has your favorite quarantine activity been?
Reading, gardening, and of course, baking bread!
What is your favorite Portland Opera memory?
Long ago we were in the middle of the second dress rehearsal of a comic opera (Daughter of the Regiment?) when a ball of yarn rolled off the stage and landed in the pit, in the middle of the flute section. Laurie Dunn, who played 2nd flute at the time, made a snap decision, picked it up and did an amazing hook throw back up over the lip of the stage. The audience roared with laughter, and afterwards Robert Bailey, the General Director, came down to tell us that it was so funny he wanted to include it as part of the show... But I remember the conductor shaking his head... "No", and that was that! These days we have scrims and a gutter to catch items that fall off the stage.