Artist Statement

What is your philosophy about teaching and music education? What has led you down the path of teaching your musical specialty? What inspires you and your teaching techniques?

I approach the art of teaching as an opportunity to activate musical and expressive potential in others. I believe that everyone has the ability to be a musician, and all that is required is an interest and a willingness. Pulling from a lifetime of training at my instrument, and over 2 decades of teaching, I approach each lesson fresh, customizing the experience for each student, their learning style, and their stage of development. My teaching goal is to provide the most efficient route to our own sense of ease, mastery, and accomplishment. Using objective observation, awareness, mindfulness tools, deliberate practice, and reflection, I train students to fully experience their musicianship for their own benefit. Meeting our own personal best is what I have found to be the most effective driver for motivation.

Teaching Bio

Where have you taught? Where and what do you currently teach? Where has your teaching career taken you in the world and as a profession?

My piano teaching career began when I was an undergraduate music student at Wesleyan University. Teaching my peers taught me a lot about how to relate, how to make information engaging and manageable, how to pace lessons for maximum effectiveness. In the next chapter I gained experience growing independent piano studios in three different locations over a couple decades: Western Massachusetts, the Boston area, and ultimately, Middlebury, Vermont. In addition to independent teaching and performing, I joined the faculty at several community music centers, getting to know different models of music education. I taught Music Together®, music and movement classes, and piano lessons at the Northampton Community Music Center, ArtSpace in Greenfield, and the New School of Music in Cambridge, MA. In this period I immersed myself in early childhood music development, which influenced my process of teaching younger children, and the inner child in all of us. I spent years bringing early childhood music to various schools and community-based organizations, including several grant funded initiatives bringing music instruction to low-income areas. One such grant focused on teaching teachers and parents how best to nurture musical growth in children, detailing the stages of musical development, and sowing the seeds of lifelong musicality. Between 2009, when I returned to my home state of Vermont, and 2014, the founding year of MCMC, my piano lesson studio grew until I had a waitlist. The wheels started turning when I started hearing that other local teachers were experiencing the same thing. With many pieces falling into place, inspired by my years of teaching and community arts work, I founded MCMC as a home for music and musicians - a place for learning, community and celebration. In addition to directing and teaching at MCMC, I teach piano as an affiliate artist at Middlebury College.

Performance Bio

Where have you performed and with whom? What roles did you have in your performances? If performance has not been a big part of your musical career, what are your thoughts and/or philosophy about performing?

In my experience, performance has been an essential part of the cycle of musical learning. Performing gives us the opportunity to achieve our personal best, along with the gift of communicating with our audiences. I define performance broadly: from playing for stuffed animals in the living room to performing on stage in a full concert hall. I’ve experienced performance at both ends of the spectrum and everything in between throughout my life from as young as I can remember. As a child, I was part of a traveling children’s chorus, performed in piano recitals, school plays and community theater. Musical theater was a big part of my life growing up all the way through high school, where I played leading roles. I loved being on stage, singing and dancing. As a teen I studied piano with Diana Fanning at Middlebury College, performing in recitals, summer music programs, and competitions. At Wesleyan University I studied with Sanda Schuldmann, and also performed in competitions, festivals, and recitals as part of my music degree. I came to love the quiet, reverberating, large spaces in which I would perform. After college I performed in the Czech Republic while attending the Prague Conservatory as a postgraduate student, studying with Frantisek Maxian. When I returned from Prague, I performed around New England as a soloist, landing at the Longy School of Music as a graduate student in 2003, studying with Faina Bryanskaya. In addition to solo performance, I enjoy playing in collaboration with other musicians. Chamber music is a deep joy. I’ve performed in trios, quartets, and duos over the last couple of decades. I enjoy being part of the shared goal of a musical performance, using nonverbal communication, and presenting something of beauty to an audience. My performing repertoire has included western art music, new compositions, including the works of women composers. In recent years I’ve performed at Middlebury College, MCMC with fellow faculty members, SongFest, the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury, the Longy School of Music in Cambridge MA, and in the Piano by Nature series in Elizabethtown, NY. Over the years I’ve also had the pleasure of performing for groups of children, opening their ears and hearts to the wonders of music, including Vermont Youth Orchestra’s Rug Concert Series most recently.