Music
I am a vocalist and harper with twenty years of musical training and performance experience. Classically trained, but influenced by jazz, Irish folk, and classic rock, I like clear and accessible music. I love the effect that using only one, two, or three instruments has in communicating a song. In addition to harp and voice, I also plays the Bodhran (an Irish frame drum) and perform with Don Myers, a graduate of the Ithaca College School of Music who plays clarinet, flute, pennywhistle, and other woodwinds.
A Light in the Darkness is my first album: a collection of lullabyes and gentle tunes played on the Celtic harp and drawn from my Irish heritage. The sounds of flute, recorder, voice, doumbek, and piano give depth to the harmonies and bring in echoes of ancient China, medieval England, and the dance music of the Middle East. This album was designed to create a sense of serenity and calm, encouraging the listener to find conscious rest and peaceful sleep.
musical training and performance experience include:
Vocals
Celtic Harp
Bodhran (Irish Drum)
Storytelling
Storytelling is a crucial element in the social life of humanity, from television and movies to hearthstones and campfires. Education, religion, and entertainment rely on the skills of storytellers. Storytelling is a way of experiencing lives and truths that we can only imagine. Storytelling is my most natural mode of performance, and I use it to entertain, to educate, and to enliven worship.
From nature centers to drama classes, grade school to graduate school, my storytelling has been part of educational curricula in New York and Illinois and religious education across the United States. My work with at-risk teenagers in the Southern Tier of New York has been praised by educators. Choosing stories and songs carefully is an important part of storytelling; many stories are part of sacred traditions and should be unavailable to outsiders without permission. When I choose and tell a story, I incorporate both thoughtfulness and humor, encouraging participants to join the characters of the stories on their journeys through joy, terror, tears, and laughter.
Writing
I have been writing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry for publication since 1995, with local, regional, national, and web credits to my name. My poetry, fiction, excerpts, and articles have appeared in The Harrow, White Crane Journal, The Folk Harp Journal, UU World, and Trilithon.
I am currently working on articles about the process of spiritual formation, Grove (a chapbook of twenty poems exploring the symbolism of the Irish Ogham script), and final revisions on my first novel.
