Pine View director Christopher Mink “taught me pro bono for six years out of the goodness of his heart, so I owe any skills that I have to public education entirely,” Mingus said in a recent Zoom chat.
There’s a lot more to the young student and musician than one instrument or one cabaret performance might indicate. He picked up the cello – or the baby bass, as he calls it – when he showed up at State College of Florida and discovered there were nine double basses but only two cellos. He brings his cello with him to some services and programs at the Siesta Key Chapel, where he serves as interim music director.