I grew up in Burlington, Vt., in a home with a great collection of classical music.
I started playing the piano at age 5 and made the wrong decision to stop my lessons. In junior high school, I fell in love with the French horn and played this marvelous brass instrument in the band and orchestra through my senior year in high school. I was also active in high school productions of West Side Story and The Pajama Game as both a singer and a dancer. The great folk music of the 1960s was an inspiration for me to learn how to play the guitar and sing with folk trios in college.
I have a master’s degree in speech and language pathology from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and am nationally licensed and certified, specializing in autism spectrum disorders and aphasia. I have always played classical music during therapy sessions with students and adults, and I have WCPE, The Classical Station, playing in every room in my home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I love dogs and have two rescues—Mickey came to me as a stray at WCPE Radio, and I adopted Miss Millie on Christmas Eve from a North Carolina shelter. Mickey is a basset hound/beagle mix, and Miss Millie is a black lab with a touch of pit bull. In my spare time, I take yoga classes, work out at the YMCA, play golf, power-walk nearly 5 miles daily, take my dog for great walks and to social events, and enjoy traveling to Europe.
Long Beach, Calif., was my home for 27 years during my adult life, and I was involved with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and Pops concerts. I also made great musical connections at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach and at the famous Hollywood Bowl. Now that I live in the Raleigh area of North Carolina, I hold season tickets to the NC Symphony and the Broadway Series South series (I have a passion for Broadway musicals!).
My favorite instrument is the pipe organ, and my favorite work for organ is the Toccata from Symphony 5, Op. 42, by Charles Marie Widor. I am so grateful to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., Dr. Robert H. Schuller’s church, for enlightening me with the beautiful music played on the Hazel Wright Organ in the sanctuary. My favorite classical composers are all of them! My favorite quote from a classical composer is by Edward Elgar: “There is music in the air, music all around us—the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.”
In late spring 2008, I decided to volunteer at WCPE to answer telephone calls from the public—and much to my surprise, the outreach director introduced me to the program director, who believed that I could be trained to become a volunteer announcer. I had no previous experience in the radio business but could not let this opportunity pass by, so I worked very hard to learn.
I love what I do at The Classical Station and enjoy the rewards of playing beautiful music for our listeners across America and around the world and hearing them call in with wonderful comments and words of support. I am truly grateful to be part of the WCPE family—it is the best thing that has ever happened to me!