Piano Lessons in Waterbury, CT

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Music Keyboard Acoustic Guitar

What is your favorite style/genre of music to play and why?
I suppose "Classical" music, would be my first love and therefore my 'favorite', if I had to choose a favorite style, as this is what my training is in and it has the most broad based classification, as it encompasses so many different 'sub-styles' -- Romanticism, Impressionism, Pointillism, 12-Tone Row, 'Modernism', Bi-Tonality; micro-tonalism. Next would be Broadway, Show Tunes; Vaudeville, and Movie music. This genre is so rich and expressive. But I absolutely love certain Country Music and Blues. Some of it is so honest, raw, natural, expressive and beautifully touching. Same with American Standards singers and Classic Jazz.

If you play more than one instrument, how did you decide to start playing the second? (Or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc)!
Since it's not always practical to carry around a piano, it's handy to be able to play guitar to accompany oneself singing!

When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
gradual, organic decision. I did not always position myself to work as a professional musician: my life path meandered and I explored other options, as my family, relationship and the circumstances of my life changed and went through some unexpected, and sometimes, dramatic twists and turns. Music always drew me back to her....It comforted me during my darkest periods. Yet, there were times when I took a hiatus from it, as the relationship I had with it, at certain times, was intertwined with difficult, conflicted feelings I had involving what I was undergoing in my university life; my family back home, and my own sense of identity. Returning to my relationship to music from a place of love and appreciation has enriched me as a human being. It is from this emotionally layered place I aim to share the joy and beauty of this art.

Does music run in your family? Tell us a little about your musical family members.
My Mother has no musical training but she enjoys music and has enjoyed it since she was a child. She has a lovely voice and a great ear, perfect pitch and the ability to carry a tune well. She sang to me from infancy to early childhood and beyond, (less often, later). She also participated in a choral group I organized for seniors. Dad loved to sing and from his teenage years listening to old 78 records of Caruso (tenor) and Bülling, and later, 33 rpm's of Fischer-Diskau; Herman Prey, etc., he aspired to become a singer. He was never taught how to practice or about how music is put together--his understanding was purely emotive; intuitive. His sense of pitch was not as good as my mother's, as his listening skills may not have been as finely attenuated. He was a sculptor by trade. It was my paternal Grandmother who was an accomplished Classical pianist at a young age.

If you weren't a musician what do you think you'd be doing instead?
I'd be helping others to reach their fitness goals; helping seniors with their needs; helping disadvantaged youth to find meaning and purpose in their lives; healing work with others; perhaps become an LMT and use music to help heal, comfort and bring a sense of well-being. I also work as an advocate for equal access to legal justice -- affordable legal advice for Americans and Canadians from a network of real attorneys with an average of 20 years' experience in bar certified legal practice in respected law firms. I also love animals and would work as a concierge or appointment setter/administrator at a Veterinary Hospital, Shelter or Clinic.

If you have a Music Degree, what is it in (Performance, Education, Musicology, Theory, Composition, etc) and why did you choose that degree?
Music Performance & Composition. I chose those degrees as they seemed like the logical continuations of my previous studies and also, since birth, it was my father's dream for me to become a performing musician. He wanted me to be a concert pianist. While I am a pianist who performs in concerts, I did not become a world famous touring musician the way my father hoped and dreamed I would become. It simply wasn't in my karma and life path.

What is your dream piece to perform and why?
I suppose some day I might play the Liszt Sonata-- why? because it is a tour de force in the pianist's repertoire, it's difficult and virtuosic, and it's a dramatic piece. Other than that, there are so many great, great pieces for the piano, it's difficult to choose! Once I thought I wanted to play Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata, which he said he had written for a 'later time' in history. (I would presume, a time, when people would come to appreciate it more). He was deaf at the time he wrote it. In the voice, I just wish to sing beautifully, expressively and convey the meanings of the particular song I am putting across in such a way as to reach a place in others' hearts that resonates and is moved by the strains they hear emanating from me. Guitar--perhaps, to play a solo cello suite by Bach, arranged for Guitar.

What does a normal practice session look like for you?
a 'normal' practice session looks like the workings out of a short term objective--Let's say I want to create a recording of myself doing a particular piece of music. I play that piece through, discover what needs working on, fix the mistake, then play or sing a part of a measure or phrase before the 'feared' area I just repaired, then play through the repaired section. If the fumble is still there, I slow it down, then speed it up, listening to it in different ways. Then I aim to sing/play it only up to a short spot afterwards, to minimize any 'fear' attached to the memory of my having performed it less well than I had hoped to. And so it goes.

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