[2] Friesen has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since 1978, and performs with Howard Levy and Glen Velez as Trio Globo.
[3] He received a Grammy Award as a member of the Paul Winter Consort for the 1994 album Spanish Angel[4] and again in 2006 for the Consort's Silver Solstice in 2007 for Crestone, and in 2011 for Miho: Journey to the Mountain.
In 2012, Friesen's book, Improvisation for Classical Musicians was published by Berklee Press/Hal Leonard.
He teaches at the Berklee College of Music[2] in Boston, Massachusetts and lives in Vermont.
Among his prominent students are Rushad Eggleston, Mads Tolling, Lindsay Mac, and Nathan Leath.