“… to teach is to learn, to learn is to work, to work is to serve, to serve is to love, to love is to sacrifice, to sacrifice is to die, to die is to live, to live is to strive, to strive is to rise above all earthly limitations and enter the eternal realm.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Teaching Info…
My teaching activities began while a student with one to one piano instruction and have continued until the present encompassing studio teaching, small group piano instruction, classroom music teaching incorporating technology, and large and small group choir preparation for performance.
The multi-cultural aspects of art music as well as an international family environment contributed to the natural choice at one point in my career to teach English to speakers of other languages. In that field, I also worked as an administrator (coordinator of instruction) of a university-based intensive English program for international students.
My hope and dream for the future is to contribute to the advancement of music education in the People’s Republic of China. Specifically, my vision is to develop a high school program for young gifted and talented Chinese musicians who aspire to be professional and have chosen to study western art/classical music. This program would be modeled after the high school program of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and would incorporate curricular and assessment strategies from well-known and reputable western music institutions, as well as character education. The artist/performing faculty will be largely teaching and performing artists with established careers. The instructional language will be predominantly English (with an English support program). The character education program’s focus will be on service to humanity. The music, academic and language programs will prepare graduates to study abroad or to continue their studies at top level Chinese music institutions, according to their preferences and possibilities. In sum, this school intends to give deserving young students an opportunity on Chinese soil that they would otherwise have to go abroad to attain as well as to prepare them for making a meaningful contribution to the advancement of human society in the 21st century.