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| At the age of five my parents moved our family from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. to Morgantown, West Virginia and bought a piano. After hearing my mother play, I started fooling around with every melody I heard and by the age of eight I was finally allowed to take lessons and eventually wound up under the tutelage of Dr. Herman Godes at West Virginia University. Though I loved classical music, popular music was even more enticing. I joined a travelling band and soon I was seeing a lot of the US and the world before settling in Atlanta. I was fortunate to meet the great jazz instructor Ted Howe, who helped me develop my musical style. I rediscovered the swing and jazz of my parents generation and made it into a successful career as a singer and pianist. My interest in teaching began in 1995 when I took a few private students and discovered that I had a talent for communicating with kids and motivating them to realize their musical potential. I was certified as an instructor for the Yamaha Music Education System and within a year was teaching 15 classes a week. During this period I was studying classical piano as I still do (with Lois Finlay), as well as counterpoint, composition, and arranging with various instructors at Georgia State. I studied the philosophy of the Suzuki method with Leah Brammer and became the graduation director for the Atlanta Area Suzuki Piano Asoociation. The beautiful philosophy developed by Dr Suzuki is at the core of my teaching style. |
