Bio Highlight: Spotlight Foundation
In 2019 Lázaro Project changed names to Spotlight Foundation with the goal to broaden our mission. Lázaro Project will remain a Spotlight Foundation initiative.
Lázaro and I together in 2004
Our return to Nicaragua in 2018 to see Lázaro, his family, and the school we support on Zapatera Island.
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 My great uncle Art in Omaha, Nebraska.
As a child, I loved watching my great uncle Art play piano by ear. When I was seven, my parents bought me a small battery powered keyboard that I became obsessed with. At the age of ten, I found a new home in Judy's Studio of Music, with piano teacher, Judy Lambert. What a true gift in my life. Judy was compassionate, kind, motivating, and fun... No wonder I loved piano so much. During my eight years with Judy, I played yearly in the Colorado Federation of Music Clubs Festival, Multiple Piano Festival (12 grand pianos simultaneously on stage with as many as 36 students playing together at the same time), among many other festivals Boulder offered. I later played three years in Boulder High's jazz band, took AP Music Theory with "Doc" Horst, Phd., and had the opportunity to perform Claude Bolling's Sentimentale with flautist, Chris Potter. |
Art was my grandfather's brother, and here we are at my grandparent's home in Omaha, Nebraska. I am 7 years old.
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I attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, deciding to study Spanish and Business... but that didn't stop me from playing piano. I was fortunate to discover that the music department offered piano lessons for advanced pianists who were non-music majors. How perfect - each semester I continued taking piano lessons, which in turn provided me with credits to graduate! Two years into my studies, I spent my entire junior year abroad in Buenos Aires. I instantly fell in love with Argentina. When first arriving I lived near the Collegium Musicum where I ventured into piano jazz tecniques with teacher Mariano Palavecino. After graduating college, I moved back to Buenos Aires, allowing me the opportunity to dive deeper into Argentine culture and learn from more incredible Argentine piano professors including composition professor Marcelo Katz, folklore professor Lilián Saba and tango genius Nicolás Ledesma. My wonderful experiences with these teachers inspired my first professional CD, "Tango y Folklore Argentino," that I recorded in Buenos Aires, 2010 in Casa Frida, featuring four tracks with my Argentine roommate and brilliant guitarist, Manuel Kohan.
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My jazz piano teacher in Buenos Aires, Mariano Palavecino.
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My adventures continued in Spain. I spent two years working for Spain's Ministry of Education as a high school English and culture teacher. My first year was in the southern region of Jaén, Andalucía. I lived in the small town of La Puerta de Segura where I explored filmmaking on my time off from teaching (there was no piano in the entire town.) My talented friend, Eve, and I co-created an eight-episode comedic web series called Pueblo that documented our time in the small town. The final installment (later filmed in Barcelona) was featured at the Project Twenty-1 Philadelphia Film and Animation Festival! In addition to acting, two of my piano compositions were featured in the short film landing me a profile on IMDB!
A blast to have our film selected for the Philadelphia Film & Animation Festival.
Hotel Villa Emilia in Barcelona, Spain
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The following year, I taught in Castelldefels, near Barcelona in the northern region Catalunya. In a turn of events, the foreign English teachers and myself went on strike after 3 months of work without pay from the government. Meanwhile, I began studying classical Spanish piano with the superbly inspirational Ludovica Mosca at L'Escola de Músics Juan Pedro Carrero. I also lived near a grand piano sitting in the lobby of the beautiful Hotel Villa Emilia. I entered the hotel to ask if they were hiring a pianist. To my surprise, I was requested to "interview" at that very moment and play their piano for a half hour. I was thrilled to be offered my first weekly paid gig by owner Katja Escorsell, which truly shaped my future and confidence as a pianist. |
Mis tesoros, Idalmis y Erika! <3
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Once returning to the United States, I began what some might call "adult life," or, in other words, seeking a full time job and career path. Teaching had always been my passion, so naturally I went back to school to get a Colorado state teaching license for high school Spanish and my Masters in Education at Regis University in Denver. Meanwhile I worked as tutor coordinator in the ¡Adelante! Program in Boulder High School, then as an educational counselor at Denver Kids, Inc., volunteering for the National Leadership Academy, and later teaching Spanish at East High School. Denver Public Schools maintained my employment as a guest teacher, where you will find me substitute teaching even to this day. These are all GREAT educational establishments and am honored to have been a part of their work with our nation's youth.
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Teaching at East High School in Denver
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With colleague Jesse and our students as counselors for Denver Kids, Inc.
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During my entire time working in education, I often decompressed in the evenings by composing. I taught myself how to type my ideas into Finale Music Notation Software, which blew me away by the "human playback" feature, allowing me to listen to a Steinway & Sons piano and strings ensemble play my music back to me. All of my musical ideas combined evolved into my autobiographical album, Memory Maze. My music became a natural fusion of all the many styles of music I had learned from my previous 20 years of piano lessons.
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I had a vision for my album, but needed some guidance to complete the project. As a Regis student finishing my Masters in Education, I looked within the school's music department for the possibility of studying with a composition professor. Luck was on my side when I received a response from the impressive Dr. Loretta Notareschi, who was willing to bring me onboard for a semester-long independent study composition class. During my time with "Dr. N," she graciously critiqued my music and helped me focus on more complex technical elements of composition.
Graduating with my Masters in Education from Regis University.
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Working with Ludovica Mosca to perfect my compositions.
It was time to make my next big step: Move back to Barcelona to train my own compositions with my previous classical Spanish professor, Ludovica Mosca, and bring my project to fruition by recording the album. Perhaps the richest of all my experiences was working with Ludovica to learn my own music. To my surprise... I often played my music all wrong! As Ludovica would joke, "You have to play what the composer has written!" I began to learn that performing my ideas was quite different from conceiving them. Ludovica molded my positions from head to toe. She trained me to hit each key not only in a specific way, but with a specific finger, hand, arm and body position and gesture. By the time I was sitting in the recording studio, there wasn't a single note in my music that Ludovica hadn't inspired me to think profoundly about. Ludovica also performs and teaches castanets, having recorded 16+ albums herself! She makes an appearance playing castanets in Memory Maze for our thrilling duet, Barcelona Tango-Rag.
Practicing with Inma before recording her vocal track.
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The recording wouldn't have been possible without one more key player. Four years earlier, when I played piano in Hotel Villa Emilia, I met a beautiful singer named Inma Ortiz. She sang in the hotel on a different night of the week, and I would often drop in to listen to her. Back home I witnessed from afar the culmination of Inma's solo album, Salto al Vacío. Inma offered to contact her musician friends to record with me - and I am endlessly grateful for the talent she introduced me to. The phenomenal recording artists who appear in Memory Maze are Martín Melendez (Cello), Carlos Caro (Violin), Pere Loewe (Bass), Marcelo Mercadante (Bandoneón) in addition to my professor Ludovica Mosca (Castanets). We recorded in the Rosazul music studio and the magic of our group's chemistry can't be put into words... but is undoubtedly expressed through the music!
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What next?! Well, many things of course. Stay tuned... and thank you for your support!
Recording in Rosazul Studio in Barcelona:
More photos from my life:
