About the Artist
I come from an artistic family. One of my earliest memories is of my mother teaching me how to play piano in our living room, where I first learned how to make music. ln the 3rd grade, I had to choose an instrument for school, and that instrument was the violin. I began private lessons with an instructor who gave me direction in classical technique but who also nurtured any curiosity I held in regard to other genres. My father plays the accordion, and from him I gained an interest in Irish music, the music him and the rest of his side of the family plays. I kept practicing and performing all through middle and high school, learning other stringed instruments, but always kept grounded by the fiddle. In the summer, I played at Forest Glen metro station for the commuters coming home after work downtown. I was cute, so the money was good. I played in a children's Irish music ensemble, the Bog Band, a group I still continue to support and work with.
I graduated high school from the Barrie School in Glenmont, and went to college at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. For two years I studied music with a focus in audio technology, continuing my private lessons in classical technique and maintaining my practice as an Irish musician independently of my formal education. In my junior year, I spent fall semester in at Edinburgh Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland, continuing my studies in audio technology. I stayed through winter break and toured Europe. I was on my own, and it was the heaviest snowfall in western Europe in a hundred years. I carried my fiddle with me the whole time, train, bus or on foot. It was wonderful, and I would love to return to Edinburgh again, but as a musician on tour and not a college student.
When I returned to the United States, I finished the majority of my credits and joined the rowing team. From that semester of college until now, I have considered physical exercise and activity a crucial component to musical abilty, and include lessons in both during sessions with my own students. I stayed one more year to complete one final credit I wasn't able to transfer from Edinburgh, and then I finished with my undergraduate degree.
After I graduated, I started composing and performing music for Pointless Theatre Co. based in Washington D.C. I have since written and performed music for seven productions, six were for Pointless, and earned two Helen Hayes nominations in the catagory of Music Director.
I now teach, compose and perform daily, and I am passionate about the music I create and the people I share it with. I'm immensely thankful for this grant, and I consider it an honor to be a recipient.
