My first guitar lessons began at the age of 7, but lasted only several weeks. I guess I was not inspired by my teacher who usually left for the bathroom after the first few minutes of the lesson and returned smelling like funny smoke.
I returned to the guitar in earnest about 5 years later, but was largely self-taught (the classical music scene in the northern Montana town of Shelby was as vast and empty as the landscape).
Eagerly, I fled to New England and attended Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts for the final two years of high school. While there I was so lucky to study guitar with Deb Fox, now a successful lutist and director of the early music group Pegasus.
I remained back east and completed a Bachelor of Music degree in Music History at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. There I studied guitar with the incomparable and singular Mr. Philip de Fremery, as well as lute and continuo with Robert Castellano. Dr. Miriam Whaples was the formidable force in the music history department and under her tutelage I painfully produced my first large thesis Francisco Tarrega: His Life, Technique, and Influence (which is equally painful to read).
I traded a lifetime of serious winters for several years of serious summers and went down to Texas for grad school at Southern Methodist University. There I studied guitar with the distinguished Robert Guthrie, and music history with the ever-patient Dr. Herbert Turrentine who lead me through another painful thesis: A Study of the Composers and Selected Works for the Five-Course Baroque Guitar in France. After grad school I expanded my general knowledge of guitar by studying flamenco guitar with Miguel Antonio.
At this time a wonderful opportunity presented itself and for two summers I went to Italy to study with the Bandini-Mela guitar duo and Giovanni Puddu. Additional travels in Italy led me to the picture perfect village of Assisi, to my future husband, and an idyllic year living near Florence (perhaps my favorite city in the world). Well, an almost idyllic year. The red tape for two foreigners (my husband is Moroccan) to get married in Italy is monumental, but I took the numerous delays as a chance to study Italian at Centro linguistico italiano Dante Aligheri.
I taught my first classical guitar lesson at the age of 16 in Shelby, MT and I continue to enjoy the one-on-one teaching experience to this day. Additionally, I have taught guitar classes and music appreciation at several colleges. In Ft. Collins, CO, I have had the privilege of performing with harpsichordist Debra Throgmorton, mezzo-soprano Laurie Miller (now an MD!), a Baroque ensemble, a chamber choir, and several duos — including mostly recently a duo with Ruth Cutcher (who has escaped to San Francisco - I can’t imagine why!) at the Art Lab.
With my husband, Sadek, we have opened the best pizzeria in the world (in my humble opinion), Pizzeria la Collina! And now with the addition of a fascinating and impish child whose interests include cats, drawing, ballet, music, cats, Barbie, mud, and cats, life has become more interesting and more challenging every day!
