Teaching in Corona

Click here to see a few photos from the Corona Youth Music Project!

Music-themed Children's Books

Looking for a new way to engage your child musically? There are so many great books with musical themes written for kids. Here are a few of my favorites!

The Carrot Seed  is about the patience one must have when planting a seed and watching it grow. I love to talk about this book with regard to practice and how we grow musically from patience and hard work.

The Cat Who Loved Mozart tells the story of a girl and her cat, and how they bond over the music of Mozart. (You know how much I love cats!)

Frederico the Mouse Violinist is a cute book about a mouse who lives in a violinmaker's studio, who gets a tiny violin of his own.

Jake the Philharmonic Dog tells the story of a NYC pup who learns all about the symphony and its instruments, and eventually he gets a job fetching the conductor's baton!

The Magic Violin addresses the need for hard work in musical study in a fun and approachable way.

The Man with the Violin is an account of the actual experiment that violinist Joshua Bell conducted in a train station. It encourages you to stop and listen to the music and is absolutely delightful.

Meet Lola the Viola and Her String Instrument Family Written by a professor of strings, this book introduces young readers to the members of the string family.

Polly and the Piano is a lovely book written by a piano teacher about her relationship with her dog. It comes with a a CD.

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin This one's last alphabetically, but definitely not least! Zin! is one of everyone's favorites.It explores the instruments of the orchestra and is a joy to read.

Don't forget - I have a lending library (with many of these books) for my current students. Do you have a favorite that;'s I left out? If so, mention it in the comments and I'll include it in my next reading roundup!

A Beautiful Wedding

One of the things I love most about playing the violin is that I've been a part of so many beautiful weddings. I've played for hire, for friends, and for family, and each celebration is so unique and personal.

Photo by Georgette Hood,

This past weekend I had the honor and privilege of providing the ceremony music for my cousin John, and my new cousin Charli! Look how beautiful and happy they are.

Photo by Janna Leigh Photography - Macon, GA

The wedding was held at the The Blacksmith Shop in Macon, GA. The ceremony was outside in the courtyard and the reception was in a beautiful old building, formerly a blacksmith shop (hence the name!) 

I've always enjoyed playing weddings, but it's even more special when it's someone you love. I prepped for the event by setting up my iPad with an AirTurn pedal. (Post on this later!) Long story short, it allows you to scan your music into the iPad so that you can easily turn pages with a foot pedal. This is helpful for weddings in particular, as you never know exactly how long it will take for everyone to get down the aisle. It also helps that the pages don't blow away during an outdoor wedding!

Charli and John were so laid back with their musical selections, so I pretty much had free reign to play what I wanted. The only specific request was that Charli wanted to walk down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon in D. I played a lovely arrangement by Martha Yasuda. I chose this one as it's full of beautiful double stops so this piece doesn't sound naked as a solo violin piece.

For the recessional, I used Martha Yasuda's arrangement of Jean-Joseph Mouret's Rondeau. I also played for about 45 minutes before the wedding. When I can choose the music, I'm always very Bach-heavy, so I played lots of Bach. He wrote so many lovely pieces for unaccompanied violin that are perfect for a wedding. I added in some Beethoven, Handel, Massenet, and others. (If you're interested in a list of my wedding selections, email me or comment below!)

It was a lovely day and I am so happy to officially welcome Charli to our family! (Though you've been family since the day you walked in the door!)