My Story
Sometimes a childhood experience is so wonderful, so enchanting, that it lights a spark and guides the rest of your life. That’s how it was for me with the piano. My aunt played, and as a baby, I pulled myself up and held onto the edge of the keyboard, trying to imitate the lovely sounds I heard. I begged my parents for lessons — and the day that blonde rental piano arrived at our house was a hundred Christmases all rolled into one!
The piano was my first and continuing love; the lessons I began at age six set me on a musical journey that came to include oboe, English horn, and singing, opening to me new bodies of repertoire and the camaraderie of ensemble music making.
I’ve been privileged to share my love of music with literally thousands of students over nearly fifty years of private and classroom teaching in universities, public schools and community college. As I’ve stepped back from teaching, I’m now focused on performance and bringing live music — and classical piano! — to new audiences through concerts and lectures.
When I’m not playing music, I’m a dog mom and enjoy fitness, sewing, cooking, travel, and fishing for Walleye. I’m also a lover of nature and proud gardener of a bio-diverse yard providing native habitat for birds, butterflies, and squirrels.
Education & Influences
My piano studies began at age six and were bookended by two students of the Hungarian pianist and composer, Ernst Von Dohnányi. At age eleven, I was accepted as a student by Lydia Hoffmann Behrendt, an early student of Dohnányi in Berlin. Through high school and college, I studied with students of Paul Doguereau, Earl Wild, Cecile Genhart, and Claudio Arrau. But the biggest influence on my approach to music came from Balint Vazsonyi, who was Dohnányi’s last student. From him, I learned the importance of narrative as a pianist, and the significance of understanding the sum of a composer’s oeuvre outside the piano repertoire.
I’ve been fortunate to learn from outstanding musicologists, including Malcom Brown, James Anthony, Thomas Noblett, and Peter Brown, all of whom gave me a broad perspective and detailed understanding of the history of music, studies that are integral to my own playing and teaching.