Concerts in April and May:

Sunday, April 19 : Come celebrate the release of the Tom Baker Quartet's second album, Save. The event will be at Egan's Ballard Jamhouse, and we'll be having two separate shows, one 6-7 and one 8-9. Each set carries a $10 admission, but that comes with a CD!!!!

Friday, April 24 : Matt Ingalls, Bay Area composer, clarinetist, and electronics whiz, will be at the Good Shepherd Center, doing a solo set followed by improvisations with me, Greg Campbell, Tari Nelson-Zagar, and Gust Burns. Concert starts at 8, $5-15 sliding scale.

Saturday May 9 : I'll be playing Marcus Oldham's Radiant Space with percussionists Dale Speicher and Dean Moore, the Good Shepherd Center.

Friday May 15: Performing in a large ensemble with composer Olivia Block, at the Good Shepherd Center.

Wednesday May 27: I'll be performing Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire with the University of Washington Contemporary Group, with soprano Maria Mannisto.

Other news:

I was just awarded a Jack Straw Productions Artist Support Program grant to make an album with my group Vertigo. We'll be working on that over the summer, and hopefully it will be done and out by this fall.

Tom Varner's album Heaven and Hell will be out on Omnitone later this year.

My album with William O. Smith (more info / buy it) just got a great review in The Clarinet:

"In all of the works contained on collage/décollage, extended techniques are part of a broader musical language and vision that transcends the unusual nature of the clarinet sounds. It is a CD that should be considered a must for any collection."

My group, which I'm now calling Vertigo (with Tom Baker on guitar, Lori Goldston on cello, and Chris Stover on trombone), just finished recording music for a possible first album. More to come!