Qualifications That Make a Difference

CAREER EXPERIENCE

As a young pianist, I  won major awards, performed with orchestras throughout California, and won a tour contract when I was just 16 years old.  I went on to earn both my bachelors(BA 1980) and masters degrees(MFA 1983) in piano performance from UCLA under the tutelage of  Aube Tzerko and Francois Regnat.  Although I was successful in performance, my true passion was teaching.  I always planned on using my performance experience, training and love for music in the capacity of a teacher.  I had a highly successful private piano studio in Los Angeles for  34 years, then moved to Cleveland for my two older daughters to attend the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  I  built a successful private piano studio in Cleveland and enjoyed teaching piano pedagogy at the Oberlin Conservatory from 2005 to 2008.  Then in 2012, we moved to Houston to be closer to my grown daughters. I established yet another large and successful studio there. Now my youngest daughter is to attend the Juilliard pre college program beginning this fall, so we have moved to beautiful Township of Washington New Jersey.  It is my goal to develop yet another successful piano studio.

  My students perform regularly in festivals, competitions, charity events, and private and public recitals. Most of my students receive the highest marks at festivals and many of my students have won major awards in solo, ensemble and concerto events in both local and national competitions as well as music scholarships. Many have gone on to pursue music as careers.  However, I don’t teach for the glory of competition wins or even with the desire that all my students become professional musicians.  I  teach because music is an expression that every child should learn.   I keep my instruction very positive, encouraging and insightful.  Every student deserves full dedication from any teacher despite his/her natural ability or reputation, and my students get that from me.

As an educator, my passion is to engage and expand the students’ minds in their pursuit of musical studies.  Working with children’s existing talents and interests, I provide them with the technical tools and mental intelligence to become not only fine pianists, but well rounded musicians.  I provide them with compelling ways to achieve their musical quests, connect themselves with what they are learning, and retain their information. My primary role is to show students the love of learning music of all periods, instill in them an organized and intelligent approach to learning, and guide them towards a reasonable comfort in performing. My hope is that the skills the students learn in their music lessons will be skills they can use in a variety of occupations and academic quests as well.  I provide my students with many performing opportunities, not only insisting on their participation in studio recitals, but on their participation in other competitive and festival performing opportunities as well.  Performance develops their confidence in themselves which, again, they may use in all sorts of life scenarios.  I train my students not just to play piano well, but foster skills they may use throughout their lives in many capacities.

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 As an accomplished accompanist to young pianists, violinists and cellists as well as choirs and operas, I have accompanied artists in recitals and competitions in such fine venues as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles Music Center, Colburn School of Performing Arts, Thousand Oaks Civic Center, Oberlin Kulas Hall,  Severance Hall and  Stude Hall at Rice University.  With an extensive knowledge of piano, violin, and cello concerto and solo repertoire, I have judged for local and state competitions and evaluations. With a degree in education, I began my career in private schools, exciting students with eurhythmics,  percussion orchestras, vocal, recorder and handbell choir, and musical presentations, as well as private piano lessons within school aftercare programs. Having had 8 children of my own and having taught literally thousands of students,  I feel uniquely qualified to teach children and young adults.  

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