About Me

Music has always been a huge part of my life

I’ve been a teacher of math and science pretty much my whole adult life, but I have incorporated musical experiences throughout my life because it is when I am playing piano, singing, or just listening to music that I am the happiest. Music calms me, energizes me, and inspires me.

I started playing the piano at the age of 4. My father played the piano, mostly jazz. He arranged songs by famous composers like Cole Porter and George Gershwin, and his family was his audience. We also went to the movies of popular musicals – West Side Story, South Pacific, My Fair Lady and Sound of Music were favorites of my sister and me. We bought the soundtrack tapes and the piano music so we could play and sing the songs.

As a teacher years later, I brought my community service club to a nursing home, where we sang songs from those very musicals. The students and I saw how happy the music made the residents; some of the patients sang or hummed along, and some just waved their hands in the air or smiled.

At the middle schools where I have taught, I’ve accompanied students singing during holiday skits and played background music for parent appreciation dinners. I’ve sung in several community choirs over the past 20 years, including a church where we sing world music in several languages. And I’ve played piano during the dinner before the annual Communitas awards show in Santa Monica for many years.

Probably the most satisfying experience playing the piano was years ago in the Alzheimers memory unit where my mother was a resident. I played oldies and musical theater songs weekly there until my Mom passed away. Near the end of her life, my mother didn’t know my name or where she was, but she clapped when I played music for her and the other residents.