I started playing piano almost as soon as I could climb up on the bench. My dad played guitar and there was always lots of singing in our house when I was young. After about 4 years of formal piano instruction, I branched out to other stringed instruments, learning guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. I became the bandleader for our family band and - along with my 2 brothers, sister and parents - lived and traveled in a bus for all of my teen years. Learning music from cassette tapes, in jam sessions, and watching bands play live at festivals really shaped my musical knowledge and made me realize that simply reading the notes on the page wasn't enough for me!

I married Andrew when we were both teenagers, and we started raising kids. Both of us were steeped in the acoustic music tradition, and passed it along to our 4 kids, who all play multiple instruments and sing. 

When I started teaching piano online in 2020, I hadn't really considered it as a long-term option, but now I love the freedom it gives me, and the flexibility I can pass along to busy families and adult learners everywhere! Although I still continue to play and even teach other instruments, piano is my first and favorite, and feels like an extension of myself.

My teaching is much like my playing- taking the musical knowledge that I've developed over 40 years of being a musician and apply it to everything from hearing chord structures, expanding left hand techniques, improvising, or yes-even reading notes on a page, still the universal written language of music! All of it contributes to making music, and bringing that joy to the world.