Throughout my life I have enjoyed a dual career as a pianist and violinist. This has provided me with an exciting and stimulating lifetime of music making!

I lived in Oakland CA as a young child, and in 2nd grade I enrolled in the outstanding public school music program. I was able to participate in group violin lessons and play in the school orchestra with a wonderful teacher named Mr. Schroeder.  I also received private lessons in piano. Later in life, as an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara I was fortunate to meet the renowned Hungarian pedagogue Dusi Mura. She was an extraordinary person, musician, and pedagogue, and she had a profound impact on me as a musician. I stepped aside from my studies at UCSB and spent 6 years studying piano with Ms. Mura, and she remained a mentor until her death in 2009.

After completing a BA in Piano performance from UCSB, I relocated to Buffalo New York. I was thrilled to be in a large city again. I was excited by the multitude of music possibilities, and became active as a teacher, piano soloist, and chamber musician. My first job however was playing for the students in the voice studio of Gena Las, a remarkable singer who had sung at La Scala for 20 years. That is when I fell in love with the vocal repertoire! I taught piano at a Community Music School and through that institution I was able to collaborate with many visiting artists through Affiliate Artists Inc. of NYC. I frequently performed as soloist and chamber musician for the live-radio broadcast “WBFO: Opus Classics Live” out of Buffalo, NY.  As a freelance violinist I played with many orchestras including the Erie Philharmonic, and the Artpark Summer Orchestra in Lewiston NY, which was home to the Buffalo Philharmonic.  

Further studies brought me to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester New York, where I studied with Rebecca Penneys, completing the MM and DMA degrees in Piano Performance and Literature. Ms. Penneys was a remarkably gifted prodigy, and offered many musical pearls of wisdom. She was a very supportive person and guided me through the program.  For the following decade I taught at Universities in Arkansas, Kansas, Texas and California. 

During this time I joined together with some of my favorite musicians and friends, and became a founding and performing member of a contemporary music ensemble called 'Colloquy'. We commissioned several new works and performed across the US, and also in Canada, Mexico, and in London, UK.

I returned to private teaching in 2006, after moving to the California Central Coast. Foe 19 years, I had many wonderful students, and several competed successfully in regional, statewide, and national competitions. I decided however, that it was time for a change, so I ventured up to Oregon and then moved to the beautiful city of Eugene and am enjoying the Oregon lifestyle. I remain a member of MTNA  https://www.mtna.org/, and now OMTA https://oregonmta.org/