About Me
The Teacher - The Musician - The Equipment - Publications- Reviews
Viola, Violin, and Musafia
Every musician collaborates with many "silent" partners - people who aren't onstage or in the classroom, but who make the tools we use. These makers spend lifetimes learning, honing & teaching their craft, or researching & innovating, much like the performer or teacher. My gratitude for this often unsung work goes out to the following people and companies:
For the Instruments: Claremont Luthier Jim Brown, who made my 2006 viola in a petite, 15 & 1/4 inch size specifically to help me continue to play after lingering muscle injuries from a car accident. It is paired with a lightweight Arcus "Sonata" carbon fiber bow. I use an anonymous violin passed down from my grandmother, Dixie Blackwelder. I often experiment with strings, and various combinations of Warchal, Thomastik, D'Addario, Corelli, Pirastro, Jargar and Larsen strings are all on my tried & true "go-to" list.
Both instruments are protected by a custom-made double case crafted by Dmitri Musafia and his staff. In the unusual circumstance that I’m only carrying one instrument at a time, I use either a Bobelock #1001 Shaped Viola Case or a Jakob Winter GreenLine 52017 Violin case.
For the Accessories:
Thanks to the innovators and creators behind the Kréddle chinrest and the BonMusica shoulder rest I use with my viola, which can both be easily customized for the right balance. Also to the creators of the Wolf Forte Secondo shoulder rest and the Impressionist Chinrest Comforter I use with my violin (which offer height and some customization at a lower price than the BonMusica & Kréddle).
Thanks to Tate Newland for the well balanced & beautiful baton I use when conducting.
Although I'm a professional violist, violinist, & music teacher, I also love learning new things! In my amateur studies, I'm grateful to be able to practice on the pipe organ at Bethany Church of Sierra Madre, and I love the customizable widths of the organ shoes from Tic Tac Toes.
My music stand of choice for for beauty and functionality at home is an Alden Lee solid desk duet stand, and for outdoors or for portability away from home, I enjoy the fact that the Peak SMS-40 folds up but still has a solid desk to write on. Manhasset should also get a nod here; although I've never owned one myself, I use (and appreciate) them frequently.
The layout of sheet music and ease of accessing it - on paper or digitally - makes sharing music across generations & languages possible. Thanks goes out to publishers like Baerenreiter, Henle, & Peters for readable, accurate editions with copious notes; to publishers like International for inexpensive editions that a music student can afford; to Alfred for excellent teaching materials (Alfred publishes most of the teaching curriculum I use , from Suzuki to CAD to theory books), to digital clearinghouses (such as musicnotes.com, CCLI, or IMSLP, or IMTEX) for making charts & sheet music readily available as PDF downloads (and helping obtain or get information about the licenses to perform them).
Longtime favorite apps and devices for me are the iPad paired with the Apple Pencil and forScore (a pdf reader with its bells and whistles designed specifically for reading, studying or annotating sheet music), ClearTune (a chromatic tuner app for apple or android devices), Time Guru (a metronome that can be set to randomly drop out to test your ability to keep a steady tempo) the kusc app (classical music public radio station), and Slack (for keeping track of lesson notes and links for each student).
For Online Teaching and Recording:
On the technical end, I'm grateful to currently have access to a 27-in iMac desktop with a wired ethernet connection, an Audient "evo 4" audio interface, a trusty (vintage?) Audio Technica 600D microphone, a Shure SM81 mic, a set of Rode Wireless Go II mics, Camo Studio (phone-as-webcam software) and OBS (Open Source Broadcaster Software).
For the teaching end, I greatly appreciate the functionality of Seesaw for music group class assignments and Slack for keeping track of private lesson notes, and thanks goes to Zoom for adding "original sound" options for all devices, making online music lessons (mostly) accessible for the majority of my students.
For the Performance Space:
I have the privilege of regularly teaching and playing in spaces with beautiful acoustics on several different campuses, such as Bethany Church of Sierra Madre, the Church of Truth in Pasadena, and the Performing Arts Center at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano. I appreciate the work of the architects, builders, and maintainers of these halls!
I am a member of: CPAF (Christian Performing Artist's Fellowship) SAA (Suzuki Association of the Americas) SMAC-LA(Suzuki Music Association of California, Los Angeles Branch) KUSC (our local "classical music" public radio station) AVS (American Viola Society)
For the Instruments: Claremont Luthier Jim Brown, who made my 2006 viola in a petite, 15 & 1/4 inch size specifically to help me continue to play after lingering muscle injuries from a car accident. It is paired with a lightweight Arcus "Sonata" carbon fiber bow. I use an anonymous violin passed down from my grandmother, Dixie Blackwelder. I often experiment with strings, and various combinations of Warchal, Thomastik, D'Addario, Corelli, Pirastro, Jargar and Larsen strings are all on my tried & true "go-to" list.
Both instruments are protected by a custom-made double case crafted by Dmitri Musafia and his staff. In the unusual circumstance that I’m only carrying one instrument at a time, I use either a Bobelock #1001 Shaped Viola Case or a Jakob Winter GreenLine 52017 Violin case.
For the Accessories:
Thanks to the innovators and creators behind the Kréddle chinrest and the BonMusica shoulder rest I use with my viola, which can both be easily customized for the right balance. Also to the creators of the Wolf Forte Secondo shoulder rest and the Impressionist Chinrest Comforter I use with my violin (which offer height and some customization at a lower price than the BonMusica & Kréddle).
Thanks to Tate Newland for the well balanced & beautiful baton I use when conducting.
Although I'm a professional violist, violinist, & music teacher, I also love learning new things! In my amateur studies, I'm grateful to be able to practice on the pipe organ at Bethany Church of Sierra Madre, and I love the customizable widths of the organ shoes from Tic Tac Toes.
My music stand of choice for for beauty and functionality at home is an Alden Lee solid desk duet stand, and for outdoors or for portability away from home, I enjoy the fact that the Peak SMS-40 folds up but still has a solid desk to write on. Manhasset should also get a nod here; although I've never owned one myself, I use (and appreciate) them frequently.
The layout of sheet music and ease of accessing it - on paper or digitally - makes sharing music across generations & languages possible. Thanks goes out to publishers like Baerenreiter, Henle, & Peters for readable, accurate editions with copious notes; to publishers like International for inexpensive editions that a music student can afford; to Alfred for excellent teaching materials (Alfred publishes most of the teaching curriculum I use , from Suzuki to CAD to theory books), to digital clearinghouses (such as musicnotes.com, CCLI, or IMSLP, or IMTEX) for making charts & sheet music readily available as PDF downloads (and helping obtain or get information about the licenses to perform them).
Longtime favorite apps and devices for me are the iPad paired with the Apple Pencil and forScore (a pdf reader with its bells and whistles designed specifically for reading, studying or annotating sheet music), ClearTune (a chromatic tuner app for apple or android devices), Time Guru (a metronome that can be set to randomly drop out to test your ability to keep a steady tempo) the kusc app (classical music public radio station), and Slack (for keeping track of lesson notes and links for each student).
For Online Teaching and Recording:
On the technical end, I'm grateful to currently have access to a 27-in iMac desktop with a wired ethernet connection, an Audient "evo 4" audio interface, a trusty (vintage?) Audio Technica 600D microphone, a Shure SM81 mic, a set of Rode Wireless Go II mics, Camo Studio (phone-as-webcam software) and OBS (Open Source Broadcaster Software).
For the teaching end, I greatly appreciate the functionality of Seesaw for music group class assignments and Slack for keeping track of private lesson notes, and thanks goes to Zoom for adding "original sound" options for all devices, making online music lessons (mostly) accessible for the majority of my students.
For the Performance Space:
I have the privilege of regularly teaching and playing in spaces with beautiful acoustics on several different campuses, such as Bethany Church of Sierra Madre, the Church of Truth in Pasadena, and the Performing Arts Center at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano. I appreciate the work of the architects, builders, and maintainers of these halls!
I am a member of: CPAF (Christian Performing Artist's Fellowship) SAA (Suzuki Association of the Americas) SMAC-LA(Suzuki Music Association of California, Los Angeles Branch) KUSC (our local "classical music" public radio station) AVS (American Viola Society)
