Books
The Practical Guide to Big Band Terminology and Symbols
While I was touring with the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and playing my way up and down the East Coast, I had the opportunity to study in some of the world's most famous jazz libraries such as the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. Yes, to me those are jazz libraries! I was looking at sheet music from well-known big band composers from the years 1957-1975 to find the most commonly used terminology and symbols so that I could compile this podium-friendly ready reference just for you! This book is meant for anyone who loves playing big band music in or out of the classroom but is particularly geared toward the non-jazz music educator. I hope it makes your lives a little easier and I'm looking forward to adding two more volumes in coming years to create the world's FIRST comprehensive glossary of big and terminology and symbols!
What Now?!
Before the pandemic, I was learning about the world the hard way from a third story walk up outside of Philadelphia. I was working as a freelancing musician and had the misfortune of being stuck on stage with a lot of openly misogynistic musicians and I had had enough of the comments, poor treatment, and bullying I was experiencing. Without a safety net, I quit the one gig that was paying most of the bills and decided to strike out on my own for better or worse. At the time, I was tasked with coming up with some material to send to band directors so that they may be inspired to hire me to work with their bands- I am always open to this, by the way! So, with a glass of wine and no real direction I did a free-writing experiment that yielded fifty-two pages of nuggets of great advice and quips that had helped me keep my sanity up until that point. I was a little lost as to what I was going to do with this until I realized that this would make a really funny and poignant little coffee table book and so "What Now?!" was born. Simply think of a stuck point or a problem you're trying to solve and then close your eyes and flip through the book til it feels like you should stop. Open these pages and the answer is there for you! Sure, it might not seem directly relevant but all philosophy is subjective anyway, right?
TEDx Talk
In 2021, I was given an amazing opportunity to share my story of navigating the world of the freelancing musician and making the jump to full-time academic. I was teaching full time at a state university and had just received my autism diagnosis. It was around this time that, after having been discriminated against by my colleagues both due to my age and gender that I decided to shed some light on what it is really like to be a woman in the academic field of music. There are some striking parallels between both businesses, and ultimately the disparity of pay, professional treatment, and lack of opportunity for promotion led me to leave both industries and go into business as a private music educator, full-time freelancing musician, classroom clinician, and performance consultant. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk...literally!