A new season with the Metropolitan Music Community is underway! With rehearsals in full swing and 175 members tuning up their instruments for an exciting fall concert performance, let's get to know the talented musicians seated all around us!
First up--Dave Smith, President of the MMC and a trumpet player with the Grand Street Community Band! Read on to hear about Dave's Sunday routine, his favorite MMC memory, and what "A Barrel of Monkeys" has to do with his path in music!
Name: David L.B. Smith
Age: 55
Occupation: Higher Education Administrator
Instrument: Trumpet
How long have you been playing with the MMC? Since the second rehearsal.
How did you get started with the MMC? A friend of mine who I met in the now defunct Williamsburg Community Orchestra call me and told me she found a great place to play. I emailed Jeff Ball (director of Brooklyn Wind Symphony) and told him I was an adult beginner and he said, “Come on”. So I did.
What is your favorite MMC memory? Alice Tully Hall for sure. As a child my parents brought me into the city regularly but since we were of limited means it was mostly for free things to do. But we often visited Lincoln Center, just to gawk. She used to go to the free rehearsals when Zubin Mehta directed the Phil. I know for sure that if she hadn’t already died and gone to heaven, she would have the day she saw her “little Davie” play at Tully!
What's the first song that comes up on your iPod when you press shuffle? Something from the Roches most likely.
What was the last concert/musical/performance you saw? I just saw Garrison Keillor’s farewell tour this summer in Maine. I’m going to miss A Prairie Home Companion very much.
What I did over my summer vacation….. Eat, sleep, golf, repeat.
What’s your typical Sunday? I get up late and waddle down to Bagel Boy. I pick up a poppy with butter for Marion, a chocolate chip cookie for Hannah and an everything bagel for me. I stop in Brooklyn Market on my way back and pick up the best tomato they have. I watch Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood while eating the world best smoked salmon bagel known to man. Then I head across the street to church where I sing bass in the choir. Then…who knows.
Give us a “local” New York recommendation. Katz’s Deli serves the best pastrami in the history of humankind.
What was your favorite Halloween costume? Now, now…my daughter might read this!
Finish this sentence: “I knew I was a musician when…..” On my third birthday one of my gifts was a large cylinder. “It’s a drum”, I exclaimed. No it’s not a drum said my mother. Not understanding the difference between a birthday present and a Christmas present I had no way of knowing that my mother was probably right—how would she know what Santa got me for my birthday? “I think it’s a drum” I persisted. “No sweetie, it’s not a drum; open it and see.” It was a barrel of monkeys (and I know none of you are old enough to remember but they came in a much bigger barrel back then). But I was not out done; I emptied out the monkeys and exclaimed, “And it’s a drum too!”