Head shots - in case you absolutely must find out what I look like...
My Little Soapbox - what else is a personal web site for, anyway?
Hmmmmm.... How to answer the question at hand? "Who am I?" Goethe said "I do not know myself and God forbid that I should" - then again, Thoreau wrote "I should not talk so much about myself if there were any body else whom I knew as well." I suppose that these two opinions are not necessarily contradictive, but it's probably a good way to begin an autobiography - irrespective of its intention. If both are applicable to me, and I can accept that they are, then I suppose that the answer becomes "I don't know, but I guess I could make a better guess at it than I could about anyone else." However, I promise that if I ever figure it out, I'll let you know.
If you want to know petty details about the things I've done rather than who I am, then read on! If you'd like to know who I am rather than what I've done, give me a call and we'll chat about it over a pint or two of Guinness.
This page is here only for the truly nosy. I think that people who put their life stories on the front page of their web site should perhaps consider going out to a bar and meeting that special someone and spend the evening (and a couple of drinks) telling that person the story instead of every poor schmuck who logs on to their web site - then again, if you're a schmuck who's rooting around in other people's web sites, you probably deserve to be inflicted with boring details about someone you'll probably never meet...
I did my B.Mus at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I majored in pipe organ, which is a great instrument to play and a boring instrument to listen to. I studied with Dr. D.F. Cook who later became the head of the Western Conservatory of Music in London (that's London, Ontario, not London, England). While I wasn't busy not practicing or avoiding studying, I filled up my hours reciting great works of literature in the student lounge, much to the dismay of my classmates...
I moved to Montreal in 1990 to have a go at getting into the M.Mus. in sound recording program at McGill University. My first year there was spent studying with Peter Cook (not the English comedian Peter Cook, in case you think I'm dropping names...), finding out how much I didn't know, and sleeping under a Sony-MCI console between setting up and tearing down microphones for graduate students like John Adams (not the composer John Adams - in case you think that I'm dropping names...) and Richard King (not King Richard - in case you think that... oh, never mind....). You see, the McGill masters program requires you to complete a year of "qualifying" (read "obstacle") courses before you get promoted to the big studio with the multitrack deck in it...
The very next year, I was put into the master's program, in which I spent most of my time trying to figure out the answer to the meaning of life and where in the hall (this is not a typo...) to put the microphones to make a lousy-sounding __________ (insert instrument name here) sound good.
After a couple of years of wide opinion swinging and arguing with just about anyone I could bump into in a hallway, I was promoted (?) once again, this time to the Ph.D. program. I spent a year doing doctoral stuff (whatever that means....) while trying to teach the undergraduates (who were trying to get into the M.Mus program) everything I knew (and some stuff I didn't - and still don't for that matter) about electronics as it relates (distantly) to audio. The next year, I continued teaching and hanging around McGill, but stopped paying tuition - I took a year off school to try and start a couple of business ventures doing freelance recording (wanna make a CD?) and computer consulting, while supporting myself and my gear habit doing graphic design and computer-geek stuff for the occasional client.
Following that, I spent two years working at the University of Ottawa as a "technologist" (huh?) in the Music Department. This means that I was doing things like moving chairs and maintaining computers and web sites and audio gear in between teaching courses in musical acoustics and computer applications in music and conducting the Contemporary Music Ensemble (and dining at Cafe Nostalgica, quaffing pints at the Royal Oak and savouring the occasional wee dram at The Manx Pub). In my spare time, I kept working on things like that "research" stuff that used to be called my Ph.D. thesis (in spite of the fact that some @$$%*!& stole a computer out of my apartment that happened to have my entire life on its hard drive... in spite of THAT fact, I STILL don't make backups... some people never learn...), designing and building a portable mixing console for myself (I'm presently stalled on the 4th and (hopefully) penultimate prototype), and riding my bike on pilgrimages to Lee Valley Tools and Mountain Equipment Co-op - two of only three things Ottawa as a city has going for it (the third is The Manx Pub on Elgin - just go there, order a meal, drink a scotch and have a good conversation while you're there, your soul with thank you for it).
While in Ottawa I also devoted my efforts to getting a live electroacoustic music ensemble off the ground - we're called the Heisenberg Ensemble. There's three of us - D'Arcy Philip Gray, Brian Pantekoek and myself. If you'd like information on where we're going to be performing, click here. You'll notice that we haven't done much in a while. It's a little difficult with the three of us scattered all over creation in New York, Montreal and Denmark...
After Ottawa, I went back to McGill to finish off my Ph.D. (with a new and improved plan for the thesis...). I was teaching a couple of undergrad courses in electronics and one grad-level course in electroacoustic measurements (trans : is the frequency response *really* flat - and is that necessarily a good thing?). Coming back in Montreal was great (hell of a city - especially compared to Ottawa!). The food's great, the coffee's great and the people aren't nearly as friendly - my kinda crowd.
The new chapter in the saga started in September, 2002 - I became a resident of Denmark! These days I work in the acoustics department of Bang & Olufsen. My official job title is... "Tonmeister" - ironic, huh? Maybe I shoud change the domain name to "tonmeister.dk" My day-to-day work primarily revolves around running developing DSP algorithms and running listening tests for prototype automotive audio systems.
That's pretty well everything up to this evening - if anything new and exciting happens, I'll add it to this frightfully exciting autobiography quick like a bunny. Promise.
author
poet
coffee
scotch
architect
tv show or maybe this one
store
actor
beer
movie
composer or maybe this one
rock band
alternative singer or maybe this one
rock singer
country singer
quotations and poetry
words