A blend of the artistic and the technical…
Music Studies
Studied music from and early age (5) starting with the Hammond M100 organ that was in the house. Organ teachers included Frances, whose last name I don’t remember (organ), Clyde Rogers (organ), Ray Young (organ), a profound influence on my life, who played the big Wurlitzer theater organ at the Organ Grinder restaurant in Denver, doing things like the lost art of silent movies, and at the Three Coins restaurant in Louisville, Colorado. Studied organ performance at Lamont School of Music in Denver under James Bratton, himself a former student of Virgil Fox, on of the foremost Bach interpreters of our time, who I had the fortune to hear in concert. Piano teachers included Steven Lee at Lamont (jazz), Gina Ferrero (classical), Chuck Schneider at University of Colorado at Denver (jazz theory), and Bill Alexander, dear friend and mentor (jazz theory / piano)
Studied Scoring and Arranging at University of Colorado at Denver with David Ackerman, Franz Roehmann and Dr. George Arasimowicz
Studied Electronic Music at Lamont School of Music with David Genova
Music Engineering Studies
Studied recording engineering at University of Colorado at Denver with Roy Pritts
Gained insights and tips from other engineers such as John Macy, John Sundberg, Gil Morales, Steve Avedis, Jim Iltis, Jeff Shuey, et al.
Attended various training webinars about recording, mixing and mastering
Musical Activities
Played for many years in various church choirs, worship teams, bands and even a bell choir…
Mainly a keyboardist, but occasionally pick up the bass to hold down simple parts…
Currently involved playing keyboards in two bands, Blues Behind Bars and D-City Junction:
Blues Behind Bars was originally a blues band (then Called Davey and the Blu Dog) formed under the leadership of David Michael Boyd, guitarist / vocalist / songwriter. Along the way, we were invited to put on a program at Sterling Correctional Facility close to Christmas. Afterwards, an inmate approached David and said that the program was the best they had had in over 30 years. To realize that this inmate had been incarcerated for over 3 decades was just mind boggling, and we decided to register a non-profit 501c3 program with the Colorado Department of Corrections through their faith based programs, called it “Blues Behind Bars” and renamed the band to Blues Behind Bars as well, and have presented programs throughout various correctional facilities in Colorado and Nebraska. We also do worship at churches and other functions
D-City Junction is the brain child of Tony Valdez – a mainly jazz vocal trio with two excellent female vocalists, Angie Curington and Bonnie Artim, much like Manhattan Transfer and New York Voices. We have done various clubs, events, senior centers
Software Engineering
Received the very first Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Denver when it was newly created, then went on to pursue graduate studies in Computer Science both at DU and the University of Colorado at Denver.
Worked as a software engineer for many years at various companies and in various areas such as aerospace, finance, television broadcasting automation, utilities, photometry and pharmaceutical data.
Used languages like Fortran, assorted assemblers, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and SQL
Personal
Married to wife Lyn, have a daughter, Jenna, a musician herself, who is married and has 4 children, and a son, David, who is married and is a firearms expert. Lyn has two daughters – Alexa, who is married and has a son, and Olivia, who is a very good artist.
Achievements
Attended St. John’s Military School in Salina, Kansas where I graduated first in my class, having been commissioned as a Captain in the corps of cadets and held the position of Battalion S-1, and received various achievement awards including Kansas Honor Student, awarded by Governor Docking.
I had Congressional nominations to both the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Was inducted into the Pi Mu Epsilon national mathematics honor society where I held the position of Secretary.
Was nominated in 2010 for a Grammy Award along with my friend Erik Satie, great grandson of the late French composer of the same name, for a four-hands piano project entitled “Suite Colorado”. The cover art was given to us by the noted Colorado photographer John Fielding because he liked the project.