An Evening With Friends

I grew up in the small university town of Commerce, Texas. My father was the chairman of the art department at the university for many years, and I was always surrounded by a wide variety of artists who were developing and experimenting with new ideas, entering and winning important art competitions, and changing the world with an explosion of creative activity.  It was an exciting time, and it had a profound effect on me.

Everyone in my family is musical. My three brothers all play one or more instruments, my father played the clarinet, and my mother sang. My grandfather played piano by ear, and had his own jazz band in Chicago during the 1930's. As I was growing up, I would hear classical music playing on the radio in my father's studio on the other side of the living room wall, and country and pop music in the rest of the house where my mother was busy with her own daily activities.  I was exposed to and learned to love a wide variety of music.

When I was a young student, I played the piano for nursing home birthday parties, and my first paid job as pianist was playing for sing-song every Sunday morning in church before Sunday School classes, at age 10.  I was an active member of the National Guild of Piano Playing Auditions, National Federation of Music Clubs, Texas Music Teachers Association, Hunt County Music Teachers Association, Commerce Music Teachers Association, and Dallas Music Teachers Association.  As a solo competition winner, I represented Dallas at the TMTA convention, and I was a regular ensemble winner, representing Hunt County nearly every year in the TMTA convention ensemble performances.  I won several 1st and 2nd place awards in the prestigious annual Mountain View College Piano Competitions, and was 1st prize winner in the Texas Girls Choir sponsored National Piano Competition, performing in Will Rogers Auditiorium during two of the choir's concerts and I am featured on three of their recordings.