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A violist,
arts leader & former 4-h participant

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About Me.

I’m a proud former 4-H participant, originally from Texas, where I spent much of my formative years taking care of various livestock and trying to stay out of trouble. (Little known true fact: I won a trophy for barrel racing in my local East Texas rodeo at age 5.) Fortunately, the violin and viola kept me in the practice room and mostly out of trouble. ;) Recently, I’ve noted the uncanny similarities between the 4-H pledge and Yo-Yo Ma’s assertion that the conductor’s baton is an extension of head, heart, and hand. I believe my time in 4-H and adopting the pledge from a young age were essential to forming my core values.

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I come from a family of educators, musicians, and community builders. I’m ceaselessly devoted to connecting people from all walks of life through community and school residency programs that encourage music composition and performance.

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When I’m not busy with music, I love playing board games, reading, cooking, hanging out with my insanely cool partner and completely amazing kids, making wacky stuff with found objects, having random adventures, and doing just about anything outdoors. I also make sure to attend the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo at least twice each January so I don’t stray too far from my roots.

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My special skills include: occasional violining, ponticello wizardry, badgering people into playing board games, purposely low-grade photoshopping for pranking purposes, and backyard axe throwing (when the neighbors' sweet little grandson isn’t visiting).

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

  • Colorado Symphony: Assistant Principal Viola + community-based project and program management (1999–)

    • Director of Community Education programs 2014-2018, innovating Sensory Friendly programming, reviving the nationally recognized Very Young Composers program

    • Wrote at-home and classroom support materials and activities for 18 weekly online programs from April through August of 2020 while the world was on pause

    • Lecturer in concert hall and community settings since 2012 

  • Founder and Artistic Director of Loon Lake Live chamber music series in NY (1997–) 

  • Program Director for Ensemble Faucheux, curating client focused special programming in diverse locations like Broadway Roxy, the Clyfford Still Museum, The Gathering Place, and Dazzle (2019–) 

  • Executive Director Longmont Symphony (2020–2022) 

  • Curator/Consultant for Friends of Chamber Music, Englewood Arts, Denver Eclectic Concerts

  • As a performer: worked with Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New York City Opera National Company, the Handel-Haydn Society of Austin, the Asian Cultural Council (Tokyo and New York), the Lenape Chamber Ensemble (Philadelphia), Santa Fe Pro Musica, Englewood Arts, Denver Eclectic Concerts, Ensemble Faucheux, Loon Lake Live, and Colorado Symphony.

Education & training

  • University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Music in Performance — Violin and Viola

  • Manhattan School of Music, Master of Music in Orchestral Performance — Viola

  • New York Philharmonic Teaching Artist

  • ​League of American Orchestras, Essentials of Orchestra Management, 2016

  • League of American Orchestras, Anne Parsons Leadership Program, 2023-2024 inaugural cohort

Take a viola listen

Bartok Viola Concerto arranged by Benjamin Tomkins
Ensemble Faucheux, presented by Friends of Chamber Music

2022 collaborative project supporting the preservation of Bela Bartok’s legacy in Saranc Lake, NY

Recorded in late 2020 against the backdrop of uncertainty, unrest, and introspection, Ensemble Faucheux put together a program spanning 400 years that meets our moment and expresses the power of music to lift, heal, and transform.

PROJECTS

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ensemble Faucheux

Ensemble Faucheux is dedicated to addressing marginalization, celebrating difference, and drawing people together through community based music performances, workshops, new commissions, and special projects.

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LOON LAKE LIVE

​Loon Lake Live has become an enduring series that has performed well over 200 concerts and educational programs throughout the Northern Adirondack area, featuring compositions ranging from hundreds of years old to world premiere commissions for small ensemble, all performed in intimate spaces.  

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COLORADO SYMPHONY

Proud assistant principal viola since 1999 in addition to leading Prelude talks, serving as the Director of Community Education Programs from 2014-18, and leading community-based project and program management. 

CURRENT OBSESSIONS

In no particular order

PLUS THESE CREATORS & PERFORMERS

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Kaija Saariaho, Errollyn Wallen, Kevin Puts, Jessie Montgomery, Florence Price, Julia Perry, Angelica Negron, Missy Mazzoli, Caroline Shaw, Terence Blanchard, Valerie Coleman, Jessica Mays, Elizabeth Brown, Paul Chihara, Tania Leon, Sergei Prokofiev, Bela Bartok, Komitas, Shulamit Ran, Nico Muhly, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Joan Tower, Thelonius Monk, Ludwig van Beethoven, John Dowland, John Luther Adams, John Adams, Gabriela Lena Frank, Steve Reich, Kenji Bunch, Gabriela Ortiz, Heinrich Biber, Beyonce, Tank and the Bangas, Little Simz, Dessa, Frank Zappa, Buke and Gase, Gabriel Kahane, Bomba Estereo, Stromae, Renee Fleming, Thorgy Thor, Bob the Drag Queen, Nemanja Radulovic, Rosette Quartet (their So Hot Right Now series is genius), Katherine Goforth, Nat('s What I Reckon), Grace Jones, Buntport Theater...

To reel off just a few anyway...

WHO'S BEESON?

I’m an arts manager, curator, creative producer & director, teaching artist, and musician. That maybe looks like a bunch of different stuff but the common thread is wonderfully improvisatory values–aligned humans.

​I’m a solution focused problem seeker, and I create.  A lot.​  Sometimes new things, sometimes kaleidoscopic shift for existing things. Some things I regularly create are ideas, content, impossible goal oriented ​dream teams, ​and shared spaces for surprise and contemplation. Plus I like creating tasty savory snacks.  That’s a thing too.
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​I lead and work with people and organizations interested in idea ​making, imaginative implementation, and collaborative structures.​ ​It’s pretty cool to ​be in a room of thought showering creatives ​amped up on caffeine and homemade chia bites.

​I’m old enough ​to have done stuff, and young enough to be ​seeking new adventures.   I've created audio / visual works, words, and ideas, curated special programming and projects, served as a teaching artist and performance host, led adult and youth education courses in person and online, held artistic operations, marketing, and fundraising roles, and played  a lot of viola.

​​While I was Director of Community Engagement for the Colorado Symphony I rebooted and brought the Very Young Composers program to national attention, began a pedagogical exchange program with a youth orchestra in Haiti, and received an award from the Colorado Music Teachers Association for programming excellence.   More recently I served as Executive Director for the Longmont Symphony Orchestra, assisting them through both a covid season and post covid emergence and recovery. 

In the late 1900s, I founded ​Loon Lake Live in the Northern Adirondack region of New York.  LLL makes shared music experiences in community spaces.  Performances of contemporary and historical music written for mostly acoustic instruments has been the focus with periodic forays into group improv sessions, discussions, and workshops.

I'm currently Assistant Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony and Creative Producer / Violist for Ensemble Faucheux where, in both roles, I also serve as an emcee and teaching artist.  I'm also proud to be a member of the 2023-2024 inaugural cohort of the Anne Parsons Leadership Program of the League of American Orchestras.

​I hope you find this site engaging and a jumping off point for exciting self directed discoveries.  Feel free to reach out anytime with questions, requests, wild ideas, or comments.  I love connecting with people.

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