A PERFORMANCE JOURNEY

A woman with short curly hair playing a red grand piano on stage, smiling at the audience. A large screen behind her displays her face. Audience members are seated in front of her, and stage lighting and equipment are visible.

THE PIANO AND THE VOICE

I began playing the flute at age 8, and ended my relationship with that instrument around age 17, burned out and disheartened. Within that time range, I briefly took piano lessons along with violin, and would try to play nearly anything I could get my hands on. I participated in many church programs and performed regularly there in a variety of ways.

Upon reaching adulthood, I left the cruelly restrictive church I was born into, and began searching for my own voice. I was fortunate to perform for about five years with The Willamette Master Chorus, about whom I like to say I “can’t believe they let me in”, considering I had zero singing experience.

With this stellar choir, I was able to travel as far as Carnegie Hall, and on that trip I experienced Marina Abramović’s incredible exhibit “The Artist is Present”. It blew my mind wide open, and I returned with a changed perception which I often think of today as a cornerstone of my artistic journey. My path moved away from music as a regular practice at this point, and I focused on my career for the next ten years.

2021: My personal and professional life fell apart, and in so doing, vision and calling began to speak again in their secret language. I purchased a piano and taught myself how to play and sing covers of my favorite songs. I was following a previously-ignored calling, felt since childhood. I knew I belonged on the stage, and that my gifts were to be shared more broadly. Now, mind you, I was terrified of the stage for a number of reasons: a musically critical mother and music teacher in childhood, trauma upon trauma, and poor self-esteem, to name a few.

2023: But somehow (by the grace of someone or something bigger than me), I knew it was to be my salvation to finally pursue what I love, and so I began to focus more on music while paying the bills by working at a Nordic cafe. An accomplished musical New Orleans guest suggested I apply to be the student of Mike Elson, an excellent professional jazz musician from New York, with whom I studied piano improvisation techniques. He eventually led me to an outstanding songwriting course developed by Portland musician Stephanie Schneidermann in August of 2024.

THE BEGINNING

It’s so hard to know where to start your own story, isn’t it?

Was it when ran through the grassy fields of my childhood home, feet stained with dandelion juice, and a little garden snake clutched in my fist?

Was it the first time I realized I didn’t fit in? When I retreated deep into mythology as I wandered along the slippery river bank with my dog?

Was it the first time I experienced parental or domestic violence?

Was it the first time I went surfing, and became liberated by the wild Oregon waves?

But, no. My story begins with a piano, a journey into fear, and the reclamation of my singing voice.

Ancient Greek-style painting of a seated male figure playing a musical instrument, surrounded by decorative elements and a column with a floral design.

Stephanie has engaged with the Portland community in profound ways, one of which includes working with unhoused and incarcerated mothers with The Lullaby Project, in conjunction with The Oregon Symphony. Following that course, I studied with Emilie Faiella, former Artist in Residence and current performer with the Portland Opera Company, for about 8 months. Concurrently, Shoshone artist and art professor Rochelle Nielsen kindly took me under her wing, as she is so wont to do with little lost birds. And, let us not forget the Portland Story Theater (https://www.pdxstorytheater.org/) founders, Lynne and Lawrence, who generously and delightfully donated their time and expertise to me, a total stranger. Gifted and loving friends have always found me when I needed them. 

October 2024: The curator at Nordic Northwest took notice of my efforts, and invited me to perform a “Nordic Themed” concert in the ballroom. It is so funny to look back at that moment, because all I could play at that moment in time was about a hundred covers of other people’s songs. So far, I’d written just one song with lyrics back in August, with Stephanie’s program. I had no idea how to pull off an original Nordic concert! 

It so happened that I received my first big idea while working a cafe shift. This idea led to the composition and release of my original one-woman show in April 2025, The Humbling of Thor, and with it, the green tendril of a new arts movement emerged: The Bardic Arts Revival.

I had experienced, for the first time, the divine Bardic connection with the gods: speaking their words, their stories, their culture in conjunction with my own music, poetry, and story. For me as the performer and vessel, the experience was one of divine wonder and ecstasy, and the audience was right there with me. I was truly blown away by their response to the performance, and am still routinely moved to tears by the reviews left for me.

I hope to not only share the crucial work of mythology with audiences worldwide, but also to give other multidisciplinary performing artists a vision and concept of how the elevated telling of mythology can be. I’d love nothing more than to see other artists far surpass my skills in the pursuit of telling the ancient stories of their people!