We came to Portland because my wife took on a position as the Director of
Marketing and Sales with Oregon Catholic Press (OCP Publications), a
Catholic music publisher in Portland. We came, leaving behind a strong connection to
parish life in the town we left behind. My wife had taken a hiatus in her
sales and marketing career to become the administrator and business manager of our
parish. Though I did computer work as my full time career, I was the music
director in our parish, and both Erin and I were pastoral musicians, both in
our parish, and in the Oakland diocese at large. Our children were altar
servers, my wife and son were lectors. My wife and I both served as Eucharistic
ministers as well. More importantly, our parish was our life. It was a
family, a place of connection, a group of people that we love. To leave that was
very difficult.
Upon arriving in Beaverton, my wife took the kids to Mass at Holy Trinity on
the first weekend of residence. (I had returned to Livermore to finish my
commitment to my job and to finalize our move.) Imagine Erin's surprise to
see Ken Canedo (our good friend) sitting at the piano that weekend. She was
also struck with the similarities of Holy Trinity to our former parish. The
interior of the church was similar in look, but the community was so similar, it was hard to dismiss the possibility that God's hand wasn't a part of the discovery of this community. In speaking with people those early weeks, Erin discovered some interesting things: Holy Trinity had worshipped in their gym for a lot of years and the santuary was relatively new. Our parish in Livermore began worshipping first at a local public high school, then the Vine Cinema, and for 35 years worshipped in a multi-purpose facility. The love that we had for parish was community, not building, and that was true of the people in Livermore that we worshipped with.
I have been a pastoral musician in the Diocese of Oakland for the past twelve years, cantoring and assisting in Diocesan liturgies including the Rite of Election Masses, Deaconate Ordination Masses, the Welcome Mass for Bishop Vigneron, Jubilee Mass as the Oakland Coliseum, mass for the National
Convocation of Priests, and the 40th Anniversary Celebration for the Diocese of Oakland. I have also been a member of FriendsChoir, a group of pastoral  musicians and OCP composers from the Diocese, committed to performing Christ-centered liturgical music in a variety of styles. I have also performed on various OCP recordings for Jesse Manibusan and Janet Whitaker, and have performed in a variety of venues with Bob Hurd, Ken Canedo, and Ruffino Zaragoza all composers from OCP as well.
In addition to my liturgical experience, I have a wide variety of choral
experience, beginning in my high school and college days, continuing on into adulthood. I have worked and performed with Galen Marshall and the Masterwork's Chorale, and with Galen have done work with Dennis Russel Davies, Oscar Shumsky and Dave Brubeck at the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, and Robert Shaw with the Festival of Masses at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. I have sung with a variety of small professional ensembles including two years with the MacGilvrey Chorale and most recently with the professional group, Voci del Tesoro under the direction of Diana Dallman Silva. I am currently singing with Valley Concert Chorale here in the Tri-Valley. It is through this variety of musical styles and techniques that I continue to grow as a musician, singer and conductor. My rehearsal and performance experiences have shaped my skill and musicianship, and are gifts that I bring with me to whatever musical experiences I become involved with.
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