My memories of my piano lessons that I had as a child help me now as a teacher. I remember having stage fright and technique difficulties. At one recital, I finally performed without a single mistake, this happened after a year and a half of performing at workshops my teacher had monthly.
Since I was not always a great success I feel I have empathy with most children struggling to practice the piano.
I was born and raised in Southern California. From my youth I studied music with well-known teachers that were training many concert pianists including recording artists.
The NGPT, a division of the American College of Musicians sponsoring the International Piano Recording Competition, awarded me a gold medal in high school; first place in the California Federation of Women’s Clubs Competition including a winner’s recital and cash award.
Among these most distinguished prizes is a prestigious membership to the Young Artists Guild presented by the Music Teachers’ Association of California that I earned at the age of sixteen. Acceptance to YAG is one of the highest honors for the Certificate of Merit program granting me a 5 year tenure as a semi-professional pianist. I also participated in the Young Artists’ Peninsula Music Festival in 1980.
In 1984, while attending UCLA, I gave a benefit concert for the Brentwood-Westwood symphony. Other significant events were two master classes with Johanna Harris, respected wife of the great American composer, and with Tamas Vasary, winner of the 1948 Franz Liszt Competition.
My achievements represent fine teachings bestowed upon me under such widely acclaimed pianists such as Carolyn Goldman, a soloist on international stages, including Igor Stravinsky as her conductor; Robert Turner, a prominent pianist ( in the western United States), had lessons with Alexander Siloti, son of the aunt of the virtuoso Sergei Rachmaninoff; Bruce Sutherland, an important piano teacher whose great work stems from the two artists Amparo Iturbi and Ethel Leginska; Ellen Wasserman, a concert pianist at the Peabody Consevatory having studied with Leon Fleisher one of the highly esteemed masters of a generation; and legendary Aube Tzerko, student of the Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel also teacher of pianist Misha Dichter 1966’s Tchaikovsky Competition silver medalist.
As a result of my fine education, I was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame Piano Guild U.S.A. allowing me to serve its related branches.
Fun fact: I worked at Costco selling pianos for the Costco Piano Roadshow in the early 2000s.