I teach viola majors and minors at Western Kentucky University. I equip all of my students with the tools necessary to become successful 21st-century musicians.

My students have gone on to become public school music directors, studio teachers, freelance musicians, musical therapists, counselors, physicists, and much more.

I combine the insights of great violists with the pedagogical philosophies of Suzuki and Rolland to arrive at a balanced and structured approach for my students. My training in pedagogy and technique enables me to effectively provide a straightforward pathway for students to build themselves into performing artists.

With my teaching, I hope to unlock my students’ inner artists by providing them with a wide range of technical and expressive tools. I love having the opportunity to help students “make it work,” to put together technical ideas that make their expressive intentions snap into clear focus.

My teaching begins and ends with sound. So many factors contribute to creating a beautiful sound, but it starts with these two principles: freedom of motion, and an open and active ear. In their first lesson, my students learn that our bodies create our sound, and that anything inhibiting the motion of our bodies also inhibits the resonance of our tone. On the other side of the coin, our ears must be both prospective and retrospective, both conceptualizing our sound ahead of time and responding to the sounds we produce.

I’m always chasing after those eye-opening moments when a student unlocks their sound. Recently, when working with a younger student on intonation, she stopped and said, “I could feel my A string ringing.” This opened a door for a more personal engagement with sound and resonance, and we continued to strengthen this connection for the rest of the lesson.

To learn more about studying with me, click below to visit the WKU music website.