MC's Circle Glenn Call ~ Rochester, New York "A legend in his own mind!" OK, so now you have one explanation of my nickname : -- "MC" - as in 'MotorCycle'! The KZ1300 was one fine machine -- with six cylinders in-line and 120 horses of brawn, it just sailed down the big road, but the Valkyrie, with 1520cc does the job just as well, with a pretty classy look to boot!	Hi Friends! Here I am -- all dressed up to roar up and down the hiways and byways on my beastly ol' Valkyrie, "Freia" "Freia," the Valkyrie is a relatively new addition. Before that I had a veritable "herd" of old Kawasaki KZ 1300's. I've done some serious miles:  1997 included an early Spring  run from Rochester, New York to Springfield, Missouri, returning back over the Smokies and up the coast. 1998 saw Frau Call and me cruising from Portland Washington through the deserts, over the Rockies and through Canada to Portland Maine. In 1999 I logged some 15,000 miles in and around central Europe. Let me tell you what a trip it is winding this ol' beast all the way out (140+ mph!) on the German Autobahn, lacing up over the Alps or wandering lazily through the gorgeous countryside on centuries-old roads! Summer 2000, right after getting grades in, I blasted down to Key West and back in four days -- 3,600 miles round trip, but what a trip! The big trip in 2001 was to see just how far north I could get. The planned 3-day trip ended up being 11 days -- click here to find out why!

Everything in moderation -- ( even moderation . . . !) Although I've studied and practiced Zen in one form or another for as long as I can remember, it wasn't until I spent some serious time in Korea that I became formally involved in Zen Buddhism. After some intense studies at  Tong Myeong Bul Weon Temple in Pusan I was formallygiven the Dharma name Seo Re ("Travels from the West") and the title Geo Sa-nim ("Resident Scholar"). Here's a picture of my name-sake, Bodhidharma, who brought Buddhism from India -- travelling from the west -- into China. (I think the resemblance is striking, don't you?) My particular temple in Korea is connected with the  Jo-gye order.  This is the the largest and oldest order in Korea and probably the closest in practice these days to that of those quirky old Chinese Zen Masters you read about in that Survey of World Religions way back in school!

I've become very interested in the culture of my beautiful second home -- If you're curious, here's a link where you can start learning about Asia's best kept secret, Korea!

Closely related to my music career has been my interest in German language and literature.
It's the language of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms -- so what do you expect from a musician?

I spent most of 1999 teaching in Dresden, Germany and studying the great German poet Goethe at the Technical University there.

Dresden is one of Europe's most stunningly beautiful cities.
This is a snapshot of downtown Dresden I took from a bridge just down from my apartment.
 

My window on the corner of Käthe-Kollwitz-Ufer and Thomas Münzer Platz looked out on the Elbe River -- the picture above is pretty much what you could have seen leaning out my bedroom window on a summer's eve. Sorry the picture's so "big" and takes so long to download -- lesser resolutions just don't convey the grandeur of it all!

Called the "Florence of the Elbe", Dresden is the home of the world-famous Semper Opera, some major art museums and scads of gorgeous Baroque buildings -- not to mention some particularly wonderful hiking! In Dresden, I did some serious touring on my motorcycle and taught English at  Inlingua Sprachschule Dresden.

Summer 2001 was spent in Leipzig, Germany at the University of Leipzig's Herder Institute.

I enjoy getting out to talk to folks about things that interest me.  This is a shot of me giving an Alphorn
demonstration at the Rochester Institute of Technology --

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Since 2006, I've been Musical Director of the German American Musicians Association. This venerable group dates back to 1933 and fronts a high-energy Blaskapelle and a classy Konzert-Kapelle - both specializing in German music. You'll see us at all sorts of major German Fests in and around Western New York. We even have a MySpace page! Our new CD has gotten great reviews ... go to our website for more Infos!

Interested in things Germanic?

Music!

Here's a short sketch of some of the highlights of my classical music career.

 

I'm still honkin' these days. As a Yamaha Performing Artist I'm very pleased to have had a hand in the design of their professional Euphonium, the model "YEP 642."

Five years in "The President's Own"  US Marine Band at the White House gave me a real jump-start into the world of professional music. I left the Marine Band in 1981, and moved to Rochester to teach at the  Eastman School of Music. Around this same time, I also directed the wind ensemble at  Nazareth College. I got my teaching certificate in 1985 and had a couple of very fine award-winning high school bands in Rochester and in Alden, New York. As conductor of the Monroe County Parks Band, I led the band on a series of broadcasts on National Public Radio and a grand tour or Germany before Monroe County abruptly cut off funding in 1993. I was on the faculty of the Roberts Wesleyan College and the   State University of New York at Fredonia until 1999 when I moved to Germany. These days, I teach Euphonium and Tuba at my studio in Rochester, New York and until recently I conducted the Greece Concert Band. You'll also find me conducting the enormous annual  Rochester Tuba Christmas in early December each year. Click on Rochester TX for links to Tuba Christmas as well as a bunch of interesting links to other aspects of the Tuba and the Euphonium.

I love the water and have been an avid recreational diver for some years now. I've collected a mess of dive certifications and am currently a PADI "Divemaster." This is me doing something I really enjoy: ice diving, up on the St. Lawrence River. It's not all cold diving, tho ... for the past three years, my wife, Eileen and I have gone to Grand Cayman!

With a little time on my hands in 2005, I went to school at the Minnesota Commercial Diver Training Center and am now certified as a commercial diver -- you know, welding, oil-rigs and that sort or stuff. The day I graduated, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and a week later or so, Hurricane Rita finished the job off. An urgent call went out for commercial divers and I felt oblilged to go try to help so I asked for some unpaid time off teaching. With a blunt "no" for an answer, I decided it was important enough to retire for-- so here's what I did in the Gulf of Mexico

Family Pictures!

To begin with, here's a shot of (left to right) the lovely Annabelle
and her son, the elegant and gracious Oliver the Barge:

My parents were both professional pilots . . .

Here's a shot of my father, Lance Call, during the Korean War

And here's my mother, Harriett neé Kenyon ca.1942 or so as a pilot with the  W.A.S.P. ("Womens Army Service Pilots")

 

That's all fer now, friends -- thanks for stopping in!

Enjoy your ride down life's short highway, and remember:

"Keep the rubber side down . . .

-- and the shiny side up!"