Despite the lack of a white winter, we had a lovely December recital with Kat Moore’s studio and played our rendition of Carol of the Bells and collaborated on a big group song together; Winter Has Begun!
Summer Camps!
Had a great time teaching Mary’s micro-camp in Anchorage and the Bluegrass 4-H Camp in Cordova the past few months. Just finished up the Super Saturated Sugar Strings summer tour as well, it was great to get into the groove of playing with the band again. Excited to get back into regular lessons this fall!
Cordova 4H Bluegrass Camp
Palmer Musk Ox Farm show
Recital Jam!
We had a lovely spring recital and music jam to wrap up the semester. We’ll probably do this format again next spring where students share solo pieces and also play as many songs as they know in the group jam! Have a great summer and I’ll see you in September 2024!
Anchorage Folk Fest
Always good to play the folk fest in the depths of winter! Such an important time to feel connected through community and music. All 9 performers had played in previous years too!
December Recital 2023
This year we collaborated with Kat’s and Sara’s students to create a winter-themed song that students had input on. Kat arranged it using students’ lyrical themes on winter, chord structure and fiddle riffs. Then we all played it together!
SugarFest!
We had a great time in Hope for the kids show portion of SugarFest! A small but enthusiastic turnout jammed tunes with some of the band members before the evening show. The dad joke competition was packed with mediocre humor and it was so fun to play music again for the first time as a new mom! Hope to do it again next year.
May Spenard Yard Jam
Twas a chilly May day but even numb fingers didn’t slow the jam!
2023 so far...
The return of the Anchorage Folk Festival at the Wendy Williamson was a blast with a lot of new faces this year. So good to have this festival back and going strong! It’s one of my favorites for student performances. In February, Kat and I put on our annual joint recital for students to share songs at the Wilda Marston. It is always a highlight of the year to see our students perform there together! Currently I am taking a break from teaching until May as we are expecting a baby any day now. I’ll be doing a summer session of teaching for just the months of May and June and hosting a few backyard jams. I will not be teaching in July or August but will resume my full time teaching schedule in September 2023!
February Recital 2023
September Music Jam
The Nave is a wonderful community space in Spenard and turned out to be a great place to host our fiddle/ guitar jam session this past September! Very spacious indeed, we had a beginner jam that slowly morphed into an advanced jam. Excited to do more of these next summer on our studio lawn!
Spring Recital 2022
This photo was from way back in May but I’m just now getting around to posting it. Another great recital with Kat Moore at the Wendy Williamson!
Winter Recital 2021
It felt good to be back in the Wilda Marston Theatre sharing music! Proud of them all for braving the stage to share a song, whether for the first time or what felt like the first time again.
Super Saturated Living Room Showcase
I’m quite proud of this showcase we were able to create here in Anchorage with the help of a great sound engineer, Lucy Peckham, and videographer, Alex Troutman! It was for the annual ArtsNW booking conference held a few weeks ago in Spokane, WA.
August Porch Jam
The last of the Spenard Yard sessions! It was fun stretching out in the new yard and playing together this summer! The Super Saturated Sugar Strings had a great time playing at the Palmer Alehouse the following night. Not sure what the winter recital will look like this year, in the meantime, stay safe everyone!
1st ever Porch Jam!
First porch jam of the year! It was small but so nice to hear students playing together in real time. Looking forward to the next one, Friday July 16th! Thanks for breaking in the '“porch” guys and gals!
2021 Menuhin Competition
Incredible to watch these amazing young violinists virtually this year!
February Song-gram
A song-gram is a song you write for someone as a gift. We’ll be working on these this month using prompts provided by students. The goal is to generate art by turning a written prompt into a musical idea. The twist is that the art is about and for someone else, you are sharing your musical ideas as a creative gift. The songs could turn out all sorts of ways but it’s a way to connect us in a language we could all get better at speaking, music. Sharing that is what it’s all about.
Winter Recital 2020 Collaboration
We premiered this live on YouTube a few weeks ago for our virtual recital. So proud of these 15 students, ages 5-19, who navigated and submitted multiple recordings of themselves to metronomes and backing tracks without knowing what the final product would sound like! This was a new collaboration aspect to our second virtual recital this year. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Fall Melodies
A compilation of music submissions from students of all skill levels over the past few weeks, written to a short fall poem prompt by Henry & Harper.
August days
Been trying out some social distance jamming lately and lucking out with the August weather. It’s been fun scouting out quiet open spaces in the Anchorage area and hoping they remain quiet and the weather holds on the day of! A voice amplifier would be nice but this spot at Kincaid was quiet enough that I didn’t need one to make it work.
Live After Five- Super Saturated Sugar Strings
Happy to share some new Super Saturated Sugar Strings tunes with you! Playing music with friends is quite emotional after going through musical withdrawals! I forgot how good it feels. Thankful for the Anchorage community for providing a way for us to share and listen to music right now. You can catch other local virtual concerts happening this summer on the Anchorage Downtown Partnership’s facebook page too.