I currently teach oboe in the music department at Wheaton College and at my private studio while playing modern and historical oboes in a variety of ensembles.  I also teach beginning and intermediate flute and recorder.  I have given historical performance master classes and lectures at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Music School of Mexico,  The University of North Texas, Boston Conservatory, Louisiana State University, University of Houston, Texas Tech University, and the Gene Byron Museum (Guanajuato, Mexico).  As the educational program coordinator of the Dallas Bach Society, I wrote, produced, and performed programs bringing historical music and dance into the Dallas public schools.

 

The journey began at Boston Conservatory, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in oboe and music education, followed by master’s degrees in oboe and early music from New England Conservatory.  With the much-appreciated help of a grant from the Frank Huntington Beebe Foundation, I moved to the Netherlands to study historical oboes at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. 

 

On November 9, 1989 — yes, the day the Berlin Wall fell — I was on a train from Amsterdam to East Berlin, intending to spend the holiday season making music and celebrating with friends.  The machine gun-toting guards greeting the passengers at the Friedrichstrasse Station were skeptical but ultimately allowed me to meet up with my friends.  After strolling through the Brandenburg Gate just hours after it opened (and being detained by the Stasi for lacking the appropriate paperwork), I spent the next three months playing concerts in East Berlin while witnessing history, all while under the watchful eye of the Stasi. When my studies in The Hague were completed, I returned to Boston, freelanced, worked on a doctorate at Boston University, and pondered my next adventure. 

 

Quite unexpectedly, I ended up in Texas, teaching historical oboes at the University of North Texas while juggling a studio of 50 modern oboe students and playing concerts throughout the South and Mexico.  But after ten years, I missed the New England winters and the Boston accent.  I needed to pull into a Dunkin' drive-through and order a lahge regulah.  It was time to come home.  I currently live in the Boston area, performing and teaching (and drinking far too much Dunkin').