Here is an example of how God uses the foolish and weak things. My happy place is when I am alone, the space is quiet, and I am buried in a book or studying music without interruption. I can go…
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Balancing Music and Motherhood
This is the first year my children are all in school full-time and the year I have felt the most need to justify my not working outside the home. The question often comes up, “What do you do with…
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Flawless Recording
It takes courage to record.
Recording is a completely different animal from live performing. It is under far greater scrutiny than a live performance. An audience tends to give grace in a live performance for small mistakes, missed jumps…
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How I Recorded a Solo Classical Piano CD in My Living Room
I recently released my debut classical piano CD, Commonplace Beauty, which was recorded in my living room! It all started about 13 years ago with the seed of an idea from a friend of mine who suggested doing a trilogy.
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About Commonplace Beauty: My Debut Classical CD
My debut classical CD, Commonplace Beauty, is now available for purchase through my website! It has been a work of love for the better part of this year, and I want to give you a glimpse of the thinking…
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Your Story, Guest Post for Piano Dao
My parents never let me quit taking piano lessons. That, really, is the crux of my story. I did not grow up under a Tiger Mom, but from the very beginning, I grew up being surrounded by classical music. My…
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Becoming an Artist, Part 6: Memorizing Hard Stuff
Memory has always been the hardest part of piano playing for me. I can sight read much of the repertoire comfortably (I'm not speaking about Faure or Ravel, haha!) but memorizing has always been a challenge. Case in point, I…
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Becoming an Artist, Part 5: Channeling Yuja
I am continually amazed at Yuja Wang and her flawless live performances. How she can perform piece after piece on different pianos, without having a lapse in concentration, a memory slip, a slight miss on a jump, is incomprehensible to…
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Becoming an Artist, Part 4: Working with Pawel Checinski
I had the most amazing piano lesson this month with Pawel Checinski, the teacher of one of my pianist friends. We met formally for an hour, and as often happens with a master teacher, I was given enough material…
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Becoming an Artist, Part 3: Developing True Artistry
Listening to myself play on a recording is quite eye-opening. Stepping back from behind the keys and hearing myself play gives me a new perspective, unclouded by what I “think” I sound like! From this position I am far more…
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Becoming an Artist, Part 2: Creating a Life in Music
In my life, I have been fortunate to ride on the backs of mentors who had incredible vision and admirable work ethic. Because of them, rarely have I felt the need to create my own musical path or seek opportunities…
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Becoming an Artist, Part 1: Pursuing a Life of Music
During my time as an undergrad my days were full of music-making: accompanying operas and musical theater productions and choirs and voice students, working on my piano performance degree, preparing for recitals, and imagining life after graduation filled to the…
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A Little Improv...
One of the pieces I'm currently working on is Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu No. 4 in C-sharp Minor. I have been mulling over the title "Impromptu" and trying to wrap my mind around his reasoning behind it. What makes this piece…
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Recording Trials
I’ve been sitting down at the piano quite a bit lately trying to find good mic configurations for recording my piano in my living room (actually, we call it "The Piano Room.” I have a Zoom H4n recorder that I…
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Practicing...
Trying to make good on my goal to have three (or more) pieces "at hand," I have been working on Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G-sharp minor (Op. 32, No. 12) this week. I played a little of it for a friend…
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What Can I Play?
I just read a great article about having pieces "at the ready" to play. It spells out my experience as a classical pianist so well - the tendency to consider time at the piano as work; constantly working to get…
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New Year, New Project
There is a longing in me, deep down, to write. I want to share ideas, encourage, inspire, console, comfort, love...through my words. I aim to do this with my piano playing, too, and I think that at times the music…Read more