I am excited to join WCFCW as an instructor. Teaching adult players, both beginners and experienced musicians, has been an incredibly enriching part of my career as a teacher. As an instructor at the Albany Senior Center for the last several years, I have come to appreciate the passion and dedication of adult players. My goal as a teacher is to help players believe in themselves and provide them with skills to become their own best teachers at home.
I started violin lessons at 12 on my cousin’s hand-me-down violin, which I still have. I was fortunate to study with teachers during and after college who provided me with a solid technical understanding of the violin. I have played in orchestras nearly all my life, and now conduct the Albany String Orchestra and the Albany Youth Orchestra chamber ensemble. I’m executive director of the Mid-Valley Prelude Sinfonia, a non-profit that provides youth strings instruction in Albany. In addition to teaching children’s and adult classes, I maintain a large private studio of violin, viola, and cello students. My passion as a performer is musical theater, and I have played in pit orchestras for about 30 shows and am conducting my first show in 2019. Although I have always liked fiddle music, in the last several years I have come to love old-time fiddle music. I find that it has taught me a lot about my fiddle and playing by ear, which has in turn helped me become a better teacher.