I was born in Milwaukee, WI in a hospital on the shore of Lake Michigan. My mother says there was a peace march going on in the street near the hospital.
I grew up in Lansing, MI. I am the oldest child and have four awesome sisters. I went to Montessori school, then the public schools. In fifth grade I chose percussion from different instruments that were presented to us at school. From then on I was always in the school music programs.
Also in fifth grade I began what was a significant pursuit for me throughout grade school: the extra-curricular activity Olympics of the Mind (a.k.a. Odyssey of the Mind or Destination ImagiNation). I found my best friends in that activity, and our team went to World Finals. I think we took third prize once.
As a teenager I spent time during summers at music camps, especially Interlochen in northern Michigan.
When I went to college in Ann Arbor, I was the first of my siblings to move away from home on my own. I studied engineering in my first year, but switched to music after that. I developed or deepened interests in nature, hiking, camping, world cultures, religions, cuisines... I learned to swim. I travelled to Japan with the percussion ensemble. I studied Indian tabla drumming in Toronto. My family was living in Puerto Rico, so I got to travel there and to the Dominican Republic, and especially to experience music in those places.
I went to graduate school for music in New Haven, CT. There I took my favorite class ever: "The New York Mambo", a history of visual art of Africa and diaspora, by Robert Ferris Thompson. I also became vegetarian (which I still am). I went packpacking in Mexico. I discovered African drumming and dance. I discovered yoga when I was figuring out how to heal an injury. I was in a Klezmer band. I travelled to Korea with the Yale Symphony. I played with many professional orchestras throughout Connecticut. I was a guest lecturer at an environmental ethics conference, where I gave an interactive presentation on the connection of music and the environment. I had one of my favorite jobs, which was teaching percussion to children at two community music schools in New York.
I travelled to Guinea and Ghana (West Africa) to study dance and music for five weeks.
I moved to Washington state and settled in Seattle for three years. This ended up being the start of a break from classical percussion, which I associate with burnout and the need to grow in other ways. During my time in Seattle I was a dancer in the Afo Drum and Dance Collective. In Afo I found an amazing community of friends. I began serious study of the balafon. I enjoyed nature, especially the rain forest and seeing orcas from the ferry boats. I became passionate about kayaking, and once did a three day trip around the San Juan Islands. I worked for an environmental non-profit organization.
I moved to Johannesburg for a year. While there I experienced and integrated the beautiful and different places and cultures. I volunteered for a short time at an AIDS hospice for children where I taught music and helped set up the music classroom. I volunteered as road crew on an AIDS awareness bicycle tour of southern Africa. I swam with dolphins in the Indian Ocean. I went to a Buddhist retreat center where they had the worlds best raw honey. I taught a yoga class. I made an organic garden. I made a friend and learned a little bit of South African dance from him. I made a balafon, carving it from wood by hand. I experienced the life on an expatriot, seeing the world's perspective on the US invading Iraq. I drove around in a little VW Beetle that I maintained myself. I went to a game reserve and saw many wild animals. I particularly enjoyed the abundance of birds in South Africa.
In 2004 I moved to Oakland, CA because I knew it to be a good place for African music and dance. I was invited into the Chinyakare Ensemble as a dancer, and was a performing member for four years. I also began pursuing men's work.
I spent a year away from Oakland, during which time I lived for a while in Truckee, CA. While there I bought a kayak, took a wonderful semester-long avalanche-safety course, taught my first dance class for adults, and played a little bluegrass balafon. I also took my first trip to Europe, visiting England, Ireland, and France. In France I began some genealogy work that my dad has since continued. I also spent time in Michigan and North Carolina, where I arranged, directed, and performed the music for my sister's wedding.
I returned to Oakland and began teaching music and dance for children in after-school programs and dance classes for adults. I resumed performing and teaching classical percussion after my sabbatical.
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