Last Tuesday, August 25th. 2026, the world mourned the loss of an incredible artist and human, Dolly Parton. The world is still in shock by her passing, learning of her cancer battle. Though I'm saddened by this news, Dolly Parton brought so much hope in a dark world and we can too. Her first film was Nine to Five, where she was able to write the theme song that to this day still rings true. The necessity for equality for all people. We are all created equal, so let's treat o

After teaching lessons today I took a risk and went to an audition for the play "The Man Who Came to Dinner" by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The audition was at St. James Episcopal Church. I was invited by a Previous College Professor and one of my voice students. All I know is the play is about an angry "mature" man who gets "hurt", and stays with a family in a wheelchair. Here is the FB link for Sunday's Auditions, August 23rd, 2026. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid

I'm so excited to share a short Sonatina I've created recently exploring ways to understand joy: elation, bewailing and delight. Webster's Dictionary delineates joy as: a feeling of great happiness or pleasure the expression or exhibition of such emotion While composing the short Sonatina, I felt an energy over all three movements, each one page long, 16 measures. Each movement explores ways to express delight, elation and even grieving/bewailing over joy. You, your students

For a while I've been working on these two songs and I'm so grateful to learn new piano music that is refreshing to the soul or provides opportunities for growth as a pianist. Both of these songs are amazing to learn and teach to Intermediate or Early Advanced. Hope you enjoy these selections. Refraction, created by Travis Lohmann (from a series called Portraits No. 5,) a composer in Las Vegas, Nevada and where I learned about his music through Piano Pronto, composed a song a

On Saturday I asked three of my students to create a video of vocal and piano solos and all three of them took a risk that day creating videos. Hope you enjoy. I'm so proud of them trying music "bigger than themselves". What a blessing. The song Boston by Stella Lefty is so popular not only in Country Music, yet according to my students the song is all over TikTok. IDK. Liam, an online student instantly worked on the song several times and then sent a video. He really likes t

So today I had to cancel the Sister Act 2 Show Choir Camp, as I didn't have enough participants. After getting set up and one of the girls showed up, I realized that the others were not showing up. So this brought on inquiries. There are no answers to these questions, yet I was reminded that I took a risk, that maybe others would not have tried. I had some people say I didn't know you were doing the camp until two days before. I have been sharing about the show choir camp for

Several years ago I found a copy of the duet and as we prepared for America's 250th Birthday, I decided to try to identify how to learn the duet and utilize iMovie. This is my first lengthy duet that doesn't align, as the Secondo has a pickup on beat 3 and 3 measures before the Primo begins. The medley contains excerpts from: The Marine's Hymn, Anchors Away, The Cassion's Song, Yankee Doodle Dandy and America the Beautiful. The music begins in the key of C Major, F Major and

When I went to Butler County Community College, I was "bitten" by dance and choreography and to this day I still love it. The director, Valerie Lippoldt-Mack, showed the benefits of Show Choir and her passion to create groups who are able to experience kinesthetics in music and theater. Her work is world-renowned and highly esteemed. Fast forward 10 years ago when the decision was made to move forward with me teaching lessons full time. Doors opened up beyond imagination, whe

Do you ever have a moment where you're thinking and you go, " That is definitely not from me", yet it's a valid point? Why are numbers down with the recent Summer Music Theater Camps? Why am I not getting the numbers like the past? Why does it feel more confusing? What am I missing? What am I not doing or seeing that could help? Some people, the summer time is a great time to keep your kids very busy each day, each week. Yet I ponder, are there people out there who take the w

I found one of several incomplete compositions on my laptop and decided to really focus on this song that I was able to complete yesterday. The premise of the piece came from taking walks, enjoying the breeze and watching how it affects the trees in such an elegant dance. I had a part of the song written a long time ago and was so grateful to have the time to finish the creation. I'm so overwhelmed in the best way. This piece in the key of D Major takes you on a walk with me