Background

Creative parents nurtured me. While they were not artists or performers by profession, our home was filled with Italian opera on the stereo, hootenannies on the first Friday of the month, and a full appreciation of art, craft and culture. My mother took craft classes at night to give her a break from raising five children born within six years. She was clever in the kitchen, and frequently signed me and my siblings up for enrichment programs at local libraries, summer school, ballet classes, scouts,… anything to get us out of the house for her sanity. My older siblings introduced me to the more “popular” music of the 1970s. They bought their own albums and had stereo wars between the bedrooms. We also got heavily involved in the CYO band and school theater programs.

I entered college to pursue a career as a music teacher. In my first year at Lawrence University, I switched instruments from flute to bassoon and managed to graduate within four years with a Bachelor of Music in bassoon performance. In the ten years that followed, I earned two Masters of Music degrees from Bowling Green Sate University and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music. Yes, I graduated from 23rd grade. There were a couple of years in between degrees where I went back to my hometown to direct the Kenosha CYO band.

It was during my last year of doctoral studies when the culture wars of the mid-90s hit. I was performing with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; stunned at the comments I would hear from long time professionals. Their expectations of community support for their art seemed disconnected from the audience.  I didn’t come to orchestral music because of guilt, obligation, or free beer. I loved it because I had a relationship with it.

At the same time, a generous arts administrator encouraged me to explore orchestra management. This invitation led to a calling in audience development and arts integration in any many institutional structures: academic, artistic, cultural or civic.

My career has been rich with opportunities to talk about art and the creative process with people from many perspectives. I teach, perform, explore, gather bits of this and that, connect and share with whoever might be interested in some of the things I find fascinating. Whether it be hearing something new in a classic piece of music, or learning more about the cultural expression of art, dance, food, film, theatre, photography, history,… I live with all my senses on high alert.

I would describe my personality as mid-western friendly with a heaping spoonful of cultural curiosity and a ripened sense of tradition formed by too many years in the classroom. As a bassoonist, my most comfortable place is in the background. Therefore, I thrive in supporting the arts community in which I love, Bethlehem of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.