"I feel that the school environment should be opening students to try different things. Then they gather what works well for them, and ultimately it creates their own voice. I try to be very open and all-inclusive, and I also try to approach a particular topic in a bunch of different ways: visually, aurally, and kinesthetically. Since a lot of woodwind students are classically trained, I want them to have the freedom to be able to explore and try new things, to free the mind from negative self-talk and just go ahead, dive in, and take a chance and explore. When you're in school, it's the time for exploration, for seeing what's out there rather than being close minded. So I do teach classical students, but I also teach people who are interested in branching out in other types of improvisation."
"I teach five Yoga for Musicians classes, and we talk about various approaches to help with performance anxiety, about meditation and how that can help with performing, about the choices that you make, and about how to help organize your time. We're basically trying to develop a stronger mind-body connection so that you can help take better care of yourself. In addition, since I've gotten more into the yoga, I've been playing music at festivals and giving Yoga for Musicians seminars, as well. So I've done a marimba festival, I've done a festival down in Mexico for a number of years, I've done one for the Flute Association here in New England, and I've been invited to the Aspen Jazz Festival next summer. I'm also writing a book called Musician's Yoga, so I'm really getting a chance to bring what I do at Berklee into the world."
"As a student, I actually went to four different colleges, and Berklee was by far my favorite. The environment here is just so unique, because you have so many different types of people with such diverse backgrounds. I think a lot of schools might have that on some level, but Berklee has it on the grandest level. It's such a great opportunity to be on the other side as a faculty member, to be able to share some of my experiences that I had as a student and create new ones and contribute to the community. It's thrilling to me to be on this side and to be able to incorporate all of the different elements of my career since being a student here, such as the painting and the yoga, and to be able to create some new things that people can get excited about and take in a new direction."
