I have loved and been moved by music all my life. My family (parents and siblings) are musical and my 3 children are also musical.
I have one grandchild (very advanced intellectually), and one coming in February of 2006 and they will, of course, be musical, or at least exposed to many facets of music (some of you may read “or else” into this, which is unfortunate and not accurate at all J).
I studied piano pedagogy (the fancy term for “how to teach piano playing”) at GVSU with Helen Marlais. She is currently also editing a large volume of student repertoire at FJH Music is Florida and many of my students are using her materials. I learned a great deal from her and still have fairly regular contact with her.
I also teach keyboard musicianship at GVSU for music majors who are non-piano majors. Everyone who gets a music degree must be able to have some skill on the piano for basic accompanying, playing parts and teaching. Many of my students there are instrumental majors (band or orchestra) or vocal majors (choir or choral ensembles). I am very fortunate in that I get to do what I love as a vocation and an avocation.