My Teaching Journey
I began teaching Piano, in the private Christian school my sons attended in California. As a "stay-at-home" mom, I desired to be close to my sons growing up, and to be involved with their school and other activities. I moved from California to the Northwest where I taught in Idaho and Montana. As my sons grew into men, I took on teaching as a full-time occupation, along with performing and playing piano at private parties for businesses, banks, churches, Governors balls, Airline executives and high-end restaurants and club venues. I moved to San Diego in 2001 where I began teaching from "Music for Kids" in Rancho Bernardo. My student clientele in San Diego continued to grow and there was a greater need for families who needed lessons taught in their own homes. I started my own independent teaching business from my own home and my student’s homes. The challenges of 2020 changed my business in many ways and in a positive way, introduced my students to online lessons through facetime and zoom. This also expanded my teaching abilities to students out of the San Diego area and to other states outside of California.
My Musical Roots
I was born and raised in Plainview, Long Island, New York. I began playing piano at 4 years old, and started lessons at 9 years of age. Surrounded with a multitude of cultural and musical venues, as a child, and being close to NYC, I quickly became interested in music. "Mary Poppins" was the first musical movie I saw as a young child, followed by "The Sound of Music.” I fell in love with the music of Rogers and Hammerstein, and as a young piano student, wanted to play all of their movie music. In my elementary school years, I played lead roles in several school plays singing and playing the piano. In 4th grade, I played the part of “Maria” in the “The Sound of Music”. In 5th grade our class had 2 casts for “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in which I not only played the part of Veruca Salt and one of the grandmothers, but also ran down below the stage in between scenes to the play the accompaniment piano for the choruses of my classmates singing. In 6th grade, I again played the lead role of “Anna” from “The King and I.” My first paid job was playing organ in the church for my next-door neighbors wedding. I was only 14. That was quite a thrill for me and my family! I started taking guitar lessons at age 14 and continued playing and began composing my own music and writing songs throughout high school.
My Hobbies
In 2003, I attended several classes and began the study of recording engineering. I created my own home studio working on Protools software. In 2016, I released my very first album of original songs, “Now Is Where You Are.” It was distributed world-wide and won a 2nd place award for Best Progressive Rock album in France. I currently continue to record my own music, as well as read audio books. I also enjoy creating and producing Doll Music videos that are posted on both my Rumble and Youtube channels, separate from my Piano Instruction channel.