Born and raised in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I grew up sheltered in the small and picturesque community of Truckee, California. There, I whiled away much of my childhood singing, conducting and dancing along to recordings and playing my piano. Long time favorites range from Bob Marley to Bach, Miles Davis to Mozart, David Bowie to Debussy, and the Rolling Stones to Rachmaninoff to name a few. I began piano lessons at the age of five and was given many opportunities to perform in my community. By the time I graduated from high school I’d performed piano, flute and voice throughout Northern California and Nevada, playing jazz in restaurants, classical music in recitals and as a prize winner in several regional competitions.

While pursuing my Bachelor of Arts in Music at Colorado College I continued to perform extensively as a soloist, studying piano with Susan Grace of the acclaimed piano duo Quattro Mani and flute with Paul Nagem, principal flute for the Colorado Springs Symphony and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Also, I performed with diverse ensembles like the Collegium Musicum an early music vocal and instrumental group with whom I toured China and Taiwan in 2001. As a freshman, I auditioned successfully for the internationally recognized Bowed Piano Ensemble, an elite group of ten student, faculty and staff musicians exploring the leading edge of performance with sounds made directly on the strings of one grand piano which result in an orchestral array of tone colors, harmonies and rhythms. The ensemble has performed at world-renowned venues like the Sydney Opera House, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Town Hall, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, performing works by contemporary composer (and ensemble founder) Stephen Scott. During my tenure we toured the West Coast and New England and recorded Entrada for BMI. In preparation for a piano concerto performance with the Chamber Orchestra I was awarded a Venture Grant to travel to London for lessons with the renowned teacher Benjamin Kaplan. Following college, I moved to London for a year to continue studies with Professor Kaplan who currently teaches at the Royal Academy and on United States tours regularly conducted Master Classes at distinguished institutions across the nation including Juilliard in New York and the Peabody Institute in Maryland.

Before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area I completed a Masters of Music in Piano Performance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in the culturally vibrant city of Winston-Salem studying with master pedagogues Clifton Matthews and Allison Gagnon and spent two summers at the Brevard Music Center as an apprentice vocal coach for the Janiec Opera Company under the direction of Andrew Campbell. Since moving back to California I’ve been enjoying an active career as a performer and educator. Recent engagements include the University of California at Berkeley New Music Project Series performing K’asa, a chamber piece for piano and violin, with Karen Shinozaki of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, appearing frequently with the innovative San Francisco based band Varona, and as assistant director and accompanist leading the Concord High Concert Choir to award-winning performances at the Boston Heritage Festival.