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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 more enticing. I joined a 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, pianist and bandleader. 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 soon I was teaching 15 classes a week. During this period I was studying classical piano as I still do (presently 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, a post I held for 6 years before starting my own graduation program. The beautiful philosophy developed by Dr Suzuki is at the core of my teaching style. |
