About My Students:

  • Learn individually and in group settings
  • Learn Suzuki and Royal Conservatory of Music repertoire and other fun things!
  • All perform solos and in small and large ensembles
  • Some play in a community string orchestra
  • Some perform in our local music festival non-competitively or competitively where they have all received helpful feedback from master teachers and some have earned awards
  • Opportunity to attend Suzuki Summer Institutes or workshops anywhere across North America or internationally

About Me:

  • Began teaching cello in 2008 upon "retiring" from nine years of homeschooling my own two boys
  • Began formal elementary school music lessons in the well-funded program of Bellingham School District
  • Studied violin under Rodger Alexander
  • Studied cello under Barbara Barnes, Lois Banks, Barton Frank (Western Washington University - Barton was a student of Felix Salmond and Gregor Piatigorsky and former principal cellist for National Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony)
  • Music Theory, Sehome High School (Ray Blank)
  • Experience in numerous string orchestras, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras (see ”Performing Experience” below for more details)
  • Suzuki Association of the Americas member and Registered Cello Instructor
  • University studies in education, art, business
  • Committed to lifelong learning
  • I also enjoy God’s creation, arts and crafts, genealogy, and finding cool resources online
  • Certified Crochet Instructor with the Craft Yarn Council

My Performing Experience:

  • Bellingham School District string program, orchestras, advanced string ensembles, string quartets  (principal cellist 6 years) 1971 - 1980
  • Whatcom Youth Symphony 1975
  • Regional honour orchestra 1976 - 1979
  • Whatcom Symphony Orchestra http://www.whatcomsymphony.com/ 1976 - 1979, 1983 - 1985
  • WMEA All-State Orchestra http://www.wmea.org/StudentEvents/HSHonorGroups/  1980
  • SD83/Community String Orchestra 2003 - 2008
  • Monashee Chamber Choir accompaniment/Monashee Chamber Orchestra 2004-2011
  • Northern Lights Chamber Choir solo cello performance and choir accompaniment 2012 &2013
  • Shuswap Singers choir accompaniment (quartet) 2013
  • Shuswap Community Church Choir accompaniment (occasional)
  • Various chamber ensembles 1977 - present

About the Suzuki Method:

 

More than fifty years ago, Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki realized the implications of the fact that children the world over learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to the learning of music, and called his method the mother-tongue approach. The ideas of parent responsibility, loving encouragement, constant repetition, etc., are some of the special features of the Suzuki approach...  More