I love music, I have studied the piano and taught it, and I love to sing. I love to be present when great live music is being made.
Singing, by myself, or in a group has always been part of my life. I joined every choir I could find as a young person, and life took on a new richness when I discovered the joy of singing in harmony as a teenager. I currently sing every week with a group in my town which is called "Everybody Sings!", and is a non-competitive, purely social and enjoyable singing opportunity. There are no auditions, we don't generally plan for performances. The point of the experience is the experience of the singing.
We have learned a repertoire of mostly shorter pieces (to allow us to more easily achieve memorisation so that we can relax more while singing) from a wide range of cultural influences. Even if I am feeling crummy or a little down when I head off to this group, I am always uplifted by the end. I feel like the singing realigns my body physically and emotionally. I'm sure there is some benefit also from all that good breathing while we sing. More here about Everybody Sings!
Another music experience that inspires me is live acoustic folk music. I am lucky to live in a area where there is an wonderful network of folk musicians, folk music venues and summer folk music festivals. In my own community I have the pleasure of working with a committee of people who produce a monthly live folk event called the Nanaimo Folk Connection. For more on the Folk Connection go to the Folk Connection Page.
For quite a few years I made my living teaching piano lessons. I was studying myself, and had a wonderful teacher and mentor named Joan Gosselin. Joan was one of the most intelligent people I've ever known, and so down to earth. She transformed my playing and my teaching during the time I studied with her.
Teaching piano was for the most part, the best job I have ever had. I enjoyed both children and adult students, I often enjoyed their parents as well, and I loved the feeling that I was passing on this gift that had been given to me and which had changed my life. One of my goals is to make my way back into that world, and teach piano again.
Being involved in the world of classical music and studying the arts opened my mind to the possibilities in other art forms. In my life I have become a person who goes to the theatre and sometimes the opera, attends dance performances, and goes to art galleries.