attended
by the largest audience of any student recital that year. Patti studied
piano as well as piano pedagogy under Dr. Joseph Matthews. She graduated
with departmental honors.Since that time, Patti has developed a large private piano teaching business. Her students all perform well at their annual recital in June. Not only has she continued developing hers and her students pianistic abilities but she has also excelled in performing and teaching the hammered dulcimer. In 1990 she won the California State Hammered Dulcimer Championship held in Claremont, CA. Her students have also placed in the beginning and advanced competitions.
Patti has performed throughout California in the bands "Blackthorn" and "Granuaile." In 1989 Granuaile released a cassette. Both of these bands performed in the Summer Concert series in the cities of Anaheim, San Clemente and Cerritos. Patti has performed solo at Disneyland and for Pacific Bell. She was hired to play hammered dulcimer parts for a recording project for "New Earth Productions", Tom Brooks, producer and, along with her current band "Crannóg" she performed on the soundtrack for the movie "Dragon's World", Richard Band Productions.
Patti teaches both piano and hammered dulcimer in Los Angeles and South Orange Counties. She is available as a solo artist as well as with many other traditional and classical instrumentalists and vocalists.
PMA These are my initials and, long ago, my cousin
addressed a letter to me using my initials in very large letters. Under
them he wrote: Positive Mental Attitude. These words I have used as a
mantra throughout my life. I always try to have a positive outlook on
life, even when there are challenges. I try to help my students believe
in themselves and to focus on the positive things in their lives. I
think music is a positive approach to life and it provides one with
coping mechanisms as well as a safe place to 'go' when life seems too
difficult. Music is a great escape!
My students perform many
recitals throughout the school year. We begin the year with a spooky
Halloween Recital where students are encouraged to come in costume. We
have a Holiday Recital at the end of December. Because of my love of
traditional Irish music, I compose arrangements of traditional Irish
tunes for my students to play for our Spring/St. Patrick's Day Recital
in March. We finish the year with our Summer Recital in June. All
students are required to memorize their pieces of music but only for the
Summer Recital. Our recitals are fun and fairly informal, and they are
held in several of the students' homes. The recitals last for about an
hour and we have desserts and drinks afterwards to celebrate each
student's performance.
I believe that recitals are important for
each student to learn to maintain their composure, to concentrate, to
perform under pressure and most of all to hear other music that might
inspire them. I believe that with proper instruction and coaching before
our recitals and, together with the students hard work and dedication,
recitals can be a positive learning experience. I never expect
perfection and will never push a student who is not ready into
performing all on their own. A quote a professor in college once told
us, one that I have always appreciated was something like, "People come
to hear live music not to hear excellence but to hear the striving for
excellence." Music can be learned for it's own sake and but also for
sharing with others.
In 2003 a group of other hammered duclimer
players and I assembled and edited a book of tunes for hammered dulcimer
called "Trapezoid Tapestry". The book was well received and has been a
good fund raiser for the organization Southern California Dulcimer
Heritage (SCDH)
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