Education

• Northwestern University, D.M.A., Composition, 1999
• Northwestern University, M.M., Composition, 1990
• Michigan State University, B.M., Theory/Composition, 1989

University Teaching Experience

Lecturer, Music Theory and Composition (2017-Present)

Director, Music Composition Program (2009-Present)

Instructor of Music, 2009-2017)

Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Michigan Technological University

Created the minor in Music Composition supporting majors in Sound Design and Audio Production. Designed the composition curriculum including creating courses in composition, music theory, film music studies and contemporary music. Developed integrated coursework from music, theater and sound design/audio production.

Teach courses tailored to the specific needs of Sound Design/Audio Production and non-music majors including:

• FA 2500 Music Theory I
• FA 3530 Music Theory II
• FA 3560 Music History
• FA 4950 Final Project in Music Composition
• FA 2222 Film Music (both classroom and distance learning versions)
• FA 3112 Composition I: Techniques of Contemporary Composition
• FA 3122 Composition II: Composition for Media
• FA 3133 Contemporary Music: The Search for New Sounds
• FA  3333: World Music
• FA 3560: Music History (distance learning version)
• FA 3673: Audio Creative Lab
• Additional instruction in Sibelius, Finale and Logic Pro

Compose/advise student composers for theater productions and other media

Administrative Positions: Third Coast New Music Festival Organizer, Director of the music composition program

Committee Service: Grants Committee

Other Relevant Professional Experience

Executive Director

Copper Country Suzuki Association, Hancock, MI, 2001-2017

• Manage all operations of a non-profit community music program including hiring and supervising instructors and volunteers, budgeting, grant writing, cultivating partnerships, development, programming, establishing artistic/educational vision.
• Teach violin/violin and Irish fiddling to beginning through advanced students, group classes and chamber music coaching
• Accomplishments: successfully sustained and grew program in spite of bad economic circumstances and a 75% reduction in external funding. Expanded program and operations from one instructor to seven. Added piano and early childhood music programs. Established the Keweenaw Youth Symphony Orchestra, the only youth orchestra in the Western Upper Peninsula. Created additional classes including Irish fiddling, music theory and parent education classes. Consolidated multiple teaching, performance, rehearsal and office spaces to one location creating a more synergistic program. Built partnerships with several community organizations including Finlandia University, Michigan Tech University, Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, Copper Country Community Arts Program and many others.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

PROFESSIONAL Grants/Awards/RESIDENCIES

• National Endowment for the Arts; Imagine Your Parks: Presenting and Multi Disciplinary Works, Co-PI - Funding for the creation of a touring sound installation and the composition of new work. 2016
• Michigan Music Teachers Association – Professional Development Grant funding to study Irish Fiddle in Asheville, NC, 2014, 2015 and 2016
• Jackson Grant  - MTU Center for Teaching and Learning - Funding to develop projects in blended learning, Co-PI, 2014    
•  Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs - Mini Grant Program - Professional Development Grant – Funding to study Irish Fiddle in Asheville, NC, 2014-2016
• Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs - Mini Grant Program - Funding to bring Pulitzer Prize winning composer, John Luther Adams and acoustic Ecologist Bernie Kraus to campus for a series of lectures and workshops entitled “Intersection of the Arts and the Natural World”, PI, 2014
• Norcross Wildlife Foundation - Assisted the Keweenaw Land Trust as a community partner in developing a grant proposal for field and sound recording equipment for the Keweenaw Soundscape Project. 2014
• ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in Memory of Buddy Baker – New York University School of Performing Arts Professions.  Selected as one of only 20 participants. Awarded the Sorel Women in Film Music Scholarship, 2010
• Isle Royale National Park Artist-in-Residence, 1999
• American Composers Forum ­- Artist residency in the Douglass Park Music Academy, Chicago, 1999                                                                                                                                                    

Selected Orchestral/Chamber Compositions

• To What Listens for chamber choir, piano, trombone, percussion based on poetry by Wendell Berry (used with permission from the author), premiered by Conscience Chamber Choir, 2016
• Out Like a Lion for wind symphony, commission by Superior Winds, premiered 2015
• Ours is the Sky for chamber choir and tuned glasses, poetry by M. Bartley Seigel,premiered by Conscience Chamber Choir, premiered 2014
• Sea Caves, Hear Caves for large orchestra and recorded soundscapes from the sea caves at the Apostle Islands National Lake Shore, commissioned by the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, premiered October 2013
• Waltzing with Amadeus for clarinet, flute, violin, percussion and recorded horse sounds, premiered at the Calumet Art Center New Music Festival, August 2011
• Shouting Teresa for string orchestra and narrator text by Italo Calvino, premiered by the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, 2009
• Butterflies for string orchestra, premiered, 2008
• Superior Dances for two violins, commissioned by the Dlutkowski/Harmon family. Premiered 2008
• Melusina calls to the Loon – solo violin and chamber orchestra, composed for the
• Isle Royale Artist and Residency Program, premiered by the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, 2003
• Melusina Calls to the Loon for solo violin performed at the Pine Mountain Music Festival
• New Chamber Works concert, 2003
• Piece for Viola Alone for Solo Viola, 1999
• Shadows For Orchestra, 1998
• Four Movements for String Trio, 1998
• Hexa…. For String Quartet, commissioned by the Michigan Technological University Department of Physics, 1997.
• Gabrielle for Eight Violas, commissioned by the Teacher Composer Alliance, Chicago, 1997
• Two Movements for String Orchestra, commissioned by the Teacher-Composer Alliance, Chicago, 1996
• Quartet for String Quartet, Masters Thesis, Northwestern University, 1999                                                                                                                                                      

Theater/Dance Compositions

• Silent Sky, Tech Theater Company, 2016
• Rose and the Rime, Tech Theater Company, a new multi-media production including dance, aerial work, lighting and sound design, 2014
• Selected music for Beautiful, an original aerial ballet, June 2013
• Stealing Fire, an original aerial dance show based on the Prometheus Legend, 2013
• Incidental Music for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Tech Theater Company, 2011
• Hecate for flute, oboe, cello, harp and percussion, performed as part of a multi-composer dance production, 2007                                                                                                                                                    

Current Projects

• Composing the Score for the 1925 Silent film THE RED KIMONA for a new release by Kino Lorber’s Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers a five-disc collection to be released in 2018
• §Incidental music for Tech Theater’s production of Shakespeare’s Midsummers Night's Dream
• Composing a new chamber work about the North Country Trail as part of the Landscape Music Composers Network’s celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the National Trails System
• Keweenaw Soundscape Project, Co-Founder – An ongoing artistic exploration and documentation of the natural soundscapes of the Keweenaw Peninsula for ecological and social reasons                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Professional Development

• Swannanoa Gathering Celtic Week – Asheville, North Carolina, July 2014 and July 2015, Irish (Martin Hayes) and Scottish Fiddling – awarded Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs Mini-Grant to attend these workshops will attend in July of 2016 – awarded Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs grant and a Michigan Music Teachers Association grant to attend.
• American Choral Directors Association, National Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, April 2015
• Suzuki Violin Teacher Training  - Suzuki Institute at Stevens Point, 2002
• Gaelic College, Cape Breton Island – Cape Breton Fiddling, July 2002
• Augusta Heritage Center Celtic Week – Elkins West Virginia, Irish Fiddling, July 200                                                                                                                                                    

Related Professional Experience

Active chamber musician and Celtic fiddler involved several performances each year from chamber/orchestra performances and recitals to festivals and fundraisers.

• Section viola, Marquette Symphony Orchestra 2001-present
• Organized and performed in the MTU Chamber Music Series
• Fiddler, Celtic Music Duo, Craic
• Fiddler, Celtic/Folk ensemble, Fiddlehead
• Fiddler, Traditional Music Group The Thimbleberry Band
• Fiddler, Eclectic acoustic band, What the Folk?
• Section Viola, Pine Mountain Music Festival 2006-2009
• Porcupine Mountain Music Festival, performed with Fiddlehead, 2006
• Guest Lecturer, Music History, Theory and Contemporary Music, Columbia College, Chicago, 1998-99
• Principle viola, Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra 2002-2006
• Northwestern University New Music Ensemble
• Violist/Violinist, CUBE New Music Ensemble                                                                                                                                                      

Professional Memberships

• International Association of Women in Music
• American Composers Forum - Founding member of the Chicago Chapter
• ASCAP  
• Society of Composers
• Landscape Composers Network                                                                                                                                          

Languages

• French.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Additional Areas of Interest

Sea Kayaking, organic gardening, beekeeping, cross country skiing, running, vegetarian cooking, dressage horseback riding, yoga, open water swimming, sustainable food systems