Photo: Rachel Holland
Glenn's musical journey began on the piano in his parent's basement. The youngest of three, Glenn began playing as soon as he was tall enough to reach the keys. In 1971, he entered his home town school music program as a saxophone student studying both classical and jazz. During the summers of 77, 78, and 79, Glenn continued his music studies at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
In college, Glenn attended Eastern Michigan University where he majored in music. His main instrument was still the saxophone and he performed regularly with the E.M.U. Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble. Glenn also took on elective study of piano and violin. It was his roommate's guitar that really caught his attention though and Glenn began spending all of his wakings hours outside of school practicing the guitar.
As a guitarist, Glenn became involved in some local garage bands and then in 1982, he found a vehicle for his own music when he joined Conditioned Response as the lead guitarist and song writer. The group was formed by bassist Larry Cepuran and included Tom Demerly on drums as well as singer and guitarist Amy Griffiths who contributed the bulk of the lyrics. The band spent two years playing all over the greater Detroit area and released a three song self-titled EP before disbanding in 1984.
During the Conditioned Response years, Glenn also built the first of many home studios and began writing and recording music projects independent of the band. Between 1986 and 1991, he put all of his focus into these projects. Without the constraints of writing for a performing band, Glenn's music took on a more experimental tone and he began finding as much inspiration in movie scores as he did in songs.
In 1992, Glenn was approached by guitarist Dan Holmes and frontman Mark Leahy to record and produce a demo for their new band Coup Detroit. After the demo was completed, Glenn became a permanent member of the band doubling on guitar and keyboards. Coup Detroit performed all over southeast Michigan from 1992 through 2011. With a revolving door of members, founder Holmes and Glenn were the only consistent members and Glenn moved from guitar to bass and then to the Chapman Stick in 1999.
Glenn felt like he'd really found the ideal instrument for his original music in the Stick and began performing as a solo artist in 2000. Over the next few years, he resurrected his home studio projects and began revisiting some of the music he was recording during the 80s and 90s. Now playing much of the music on the Stick, he began working some of the material into his solo repertoire with the help of modern day looping devices and drum machines. In 2004, Glenn completely rebuilt his home studio using a new computer based setup and began working on his first official release naming the project 121normal after the location of his first studio. In the summer of 2007, the project's first self-titled CD was released.
Since taking up the Stick in 1999, Glenn has been fortunate enough to study with some of the best players in the world including Greg Howard, Bob Culbertson, Jim Lampi, Steve Adelson, and the instrument creator Emmett Chapman. In more recent years, Glenn has added some guitar music to his solo repertoire focusing on fingerstyle acoustic and taking workshops with some world class players including Laurence Juber, Billy McLaughlin, Muriel Anderson, Thom Bresh, and Don Ross.
Today Glenn continues to divide his time between the Stick, the guitar, and the piano and he also loves to work with both hardware and software synthesizers. He continues to work with the 121normal project and still performs live as a solo artist. His music has been played on local radio and has been featured in independent film. He still considers himself, first and foremost, a student of music.