Biography

I was raised in inner city Chicago where I began cultivating my passion for the arts at an early age. My first performances took place at a neighborhood community recreation center. There I expressed myself in a wide variety of ways -- I tap danced in variety shows, I attempted ballet, acted in dramatic plays and performed trampoline routines. My lifelong relationship with music began when I was about 9 years old and received my first record player. I was given a pair of drumsticks at about that same time and quickly learned every beat to drum driven TV themes such as “Hawaii Five-O” and “Mission Impossible.”

That led to my becoming a drummer -- the only girl drummer in my high school band. I became a pretty good drummer and dreamed of becoming a rock and roll star. But this dream was soon replaced by another, after I attended a performance by a folksinger friend who accompanied herself on an acoustic guitar singing one of her own songs. I was inspired by her example and went home and dug out my mothers’ old Harmony guitar, a leftover relic of the 60’s folk boom. Soon I had taught myself a few chords and never looked back. Over the past three decades my journey with the guitar has led me to many places, through diverse musical styles.

I’ve studied at such diverse places as The Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago to the Naropa Institute in Colorado and Omega Institute in New York. Some of the teachers I’ve had the opportunity to study with include: Robert Fripp, Ralph Towner, David Darling and Dusan Bogdanovich. With the help of these and many other teachers I explored the realms of finger picking and flatpicking styles, Irish music, jazz improvisation and classical technique. I also took some writing workshops with artists such as Kate Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, Lynda Barry and Anne Waldman. I eventually recorded an album, which was co-produced by local chapman stick player Greg Howard. This past summer August 2011, I released my first CD, "Choose the Sky".

WTJU radio announcer

Because music is the main focus of my life, it was inevitable that I began working in radio. I became an announcer on WTJU in the spring of 1990. I co-hosted “Sunset Road” on Friday afternoons from 5:00-7:00 for 10 years before switching to “The Eclectic Woman Show” on Thursday evenings 5:00-7:00. Because my time is now needed for my other musical endeavors, I have recently had to reduce my involvement in radio to fundraisers and occasional special theme shows.