For the past seventeen years I have been teaching a variety of music classes at Kapi’olani Community College, University of Hawai’i system: four levels of group piano classes, applied piano lessons, and music theory.  I also developed additional and specialized classes that were added to the curriculum: a performing synthesizer ensemble, piano by ear/ improvisation class, and applied flute lessons.  These classes have now been an integral part of my teaching load for the past 15 years, and I have developed the synthesizer ensemble into a group that performs 4-6 times a semester, both on campus as well as in the community.  In addition, I am the coordinator for the monthly music repertoire recitals featuring piano, guitar, voice, and flute students from the applied studio classes, as well as advanced students from the group lesson classes, the synthesizer ensemble, and occasional guest performers.  I have developed these recitals since 1993, and more recently have highlighted those students who plan to transfer as music majors; that specific student population has increased substantially in the past six years.  I enjoy teaching, composing, and performing; my most recent performance at Mozart House in March 2009 was a collaborative two-piano rendition of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto, Op. 18: Allegro scherzando, accompanying my student Ayano Saito.

I have served three terms as the music discipline coordinator, was recently promoted to Associate Professor, and am currently honored to have advanced to the finals for the 2009 BOR Excellence in Teaching Award.  I have been in the University of Hawai’i system for 25 years: prior to teaching at KCC, I taught at Leeward Community College for eight years, as well as one semester at Windward Community College.  My earliest teaching experience was in Cincinnati, OH, while I was finishing my master’s degree at CCM (the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music).  I was hired by the Baldwin Piano Company to teach in their largest music education lab school, after taking their extensive Master Teacher Training Program in group piano methods.  I then became the lab demonstration specialist for visiting local schools, and taught two-year-old through adult classes for two years in all four of the Cincinnati lab school locations: Gilbert St., Kenwood, Westwood, and Anderson Township.

Church music is an important part of my life, and I served as the Associate Director of Worship Music at United Church of Christ–Judd Street for over 20 years, directing the Chapel Choir, Handbell Choir, Choraliers Children’s Choir, Youth Choir, Youth Keyboard Ensemble, and the Angels of Faith (youth girls vocal ensemble).  I am still heavily involved in the variety of musical groups there, many of which I created and developed.  I presently direct the Praise Team (sing soprano in this ensemble as well as play keyboards and flute), and ring in the Handbell Choir.  I also enjoy composing and arranging music for these groups.

I received my musical training at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where I double-majored in Piano and Flute, receiving a B.A. degree in Music in 1980.  I then received a Master’s degree in Music Theory with a Piano Concentration from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati in 1985; my published thesis was entitled “A Set-Motivic Analysis of the Four Chopin Ballades”.  I also did multiple summer post-graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, taking the Piano Pedagogy Seminar with Dr. Douglas Humphreys, the “Motion and Emotion in the Chopin Etudes” course and private coaching sessions with Rebecca Penneys, and the Computer Music Techniques (Finale) course with Dr. Alan Schindler.  I recently took two different Taubman piano technique coaching sessions.  The first focused on infusing the Taubman Technique into my performances of my original piano composition, an etude entitled “Love and Friendship: An Etude for Sandy”.  This session was given by Zitta Zohar (Concert Pianist/ Technique and Wellness piano specialist) and Yoheved Kaplinsky (Piano Faculty Chair, The Juilliard School) in October 2005 at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, held in Anaheim, California. The second was a private lesson in April 2008, given by Maria del Pico Taylor (visiting professor of piano from Temple University), which covered various aspects of how to teach the Taubman technique through scales, arpeggios, and other technical exercises.