My musical adventure began when I was eight years old with violin lessons. After 2 years of violin the local band director recruited for our band program. My mother told me to play drums because my rhythm was terrible. It turns out that there was nothing wrong with my rhythm. I just couldn’t play violin without constantly stopping and starting. 

My senior year I got a superior rating at the state contest, ended up with a percussion scholarship, and started working for a degree in Music Education. After two years I had to change to a state school and changed my major just to get a degree because my father refused to listen to me play piano! It turns out I wasn’t very good at piano either. 

I taught five years in a small Christian School in Florida and one year in Chicago, then returned to Florida after one year in the Chicago snow and cold and continued to play for a total of twelve years with the Boca (Raton) Pops. When the band changed to an orchestra, I went on to work with church children’s choirs for another sixteen years. 

I haven’t played much in the past twenty years but with the Haywood Community Band, it is all coming back to me! I have been playing an instrument now for 70 years. I fully support the mission of the band as I know that if it hadn’t been for our high school band, there are some kids that probably would have ended up in jail. I fully believe that if you give a kid an instrument or a pair of sticks, you can change his or her life forever.