About

I’m a violinist and violist based in San Diego, California. I play a variety of genres and have performed throughout the USA, Mexico, The United Kingdom and Europe. I also enjoy singing and have been incorporating my voice into projects more recently. My work centers around collaboration and experimentation. I am interested in creating pieces that provide some kind of dialogue between personal and collective perspectives.

In San Diego I perform with Quartet Nouveau, a string quartet that presents classical chamber music throughout Southern California. Quartet Nouveau is a non-profit organization and offers outreach concerts and chamber music coachings. Many of our concerts are free. I am also a member of Baby Bushka, an eight-piece all-female band celebrating the music of Kate Bush. Since our inception in 2017, Baby Bushka has quickly become an international sensation. We’ve played sold out shows up and down the West Coast and are headed overseas for our second UK/Ireland tour in 2022.

In 2014, I graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a doctoral degree in violin performance, focusing on avant garde repertoire and experimental practices. Being a part of the UCSD musical community allowed me to collaborate with awesome composers and performers such as Nicholas Deyoe, Leslie Leytham, Meghann Welsh, Yvette Janine Jackson, Bonnie Lander, Jonathan Piper, Clinton Ross Davis, Michiko Ogawa, Stephanie Aston, Katalin Lukács, Sam Dunscombe, Jessica Aszodi, Judith Hamann, Rachel Beetz,  Todd Moellenberg, Clint McCallum, Carolyn Chen, Rick Snow, and Bob Pierzak, to name a few. I performed a number of premieres and studied with the late Hungarian violinist János Négyesy. Currently, I play often for The Hutchins Consort, Project [BLANK], San Diego New Music  and Art of Élan. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with Los Angeles based ensembles WasteLAnd and wild Up, NYC ensembles ICE and Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Ensemble Pamplemousse.

A little about my past: I grew up in a musical household, the third of four children. We all studied a string instrument (violin or cello) as well as piano and performed often together in our hometown of Houston, Texas. Along with being immersed in classical music from a young age, I became obsessed with the local oldies radio station- The Mamas and the Papas, The Supremes, The Shirelles, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Doo Wop, etc. My interest in popular music continues to influence the work I do. Some current favorites are The Feelies, Viv Albertine, Barrington Levy, Kate Bush, Daniel Johnston, Townes Van Zandt, Aldous Harding, Joni Mitchell, The B52s, The Pet Shop Boys, Yoko Ono and Robyn Hitchcock.

In Houston, my primary teachers were Judy Offman of the Suzuki School of Houston and Fredell Lack. I began my college studies at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston and continued on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music as a student of Sylvia Rosenberg. I’ve performed at the Ojai Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Lucerne Festival Academy, Aspen Music Festival, and Bach Festival of Leipzig. Recently, I’ve enjoyed being a part of the Baroque on Beaver Island Festival and Festival Vértice in Mexico City.

I am very lucky to play on a 2002 violin made by Houston based luthier Alkis S. Rappas. The instrument, inspired by the 1721 “Lady Blunt” Stradivari violin, was awarded a Silver Medal for Violin Tone by the Violin Society of America (VSA) at the 15th International Competition and Exhibition, Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, November 11-17, 2002.

Some current projects include a collaboration with visual artist and storyteller Jenna Ann McGillis about the Tijuana Estuary, as well as ongoing exploration and performances of György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with soprano Bonnie Lander. I have also been performing movements of Some Dragons, a song cycle for singing violinist by Carolyn Chen, and look forward to premiering the piece in its entirety in 2022.