Happy Valentine's Day to the three- and four-year-olds, kindergarteners, early elementary kids, middle schoolers, high school young adults, adults-of-students-turned-students-themselves, and grandparents who I see in my studio week in and week out. It's no secret how much I love you all, but in case I don't say it enough, here's a love letter from your teacher...

When I opened the studio I knew it would be modeled after Separk Music's original location on Fourth Street; specifically, there would be dogs present. Whenever I needed music, I took the short walk from my Fifth Street workplace down to Fourth Street to the cozy shop where Charlie Parker, a gentle giant of a dog welcomed me every time. Now that Separk has moved to its new location in Lewisville, the store exhibits a poster of pictures of the good-ol'-days when Charlie was alive and the new dog-in-residence is Pepper, a gentle girl who loves tummy rubs and knows me quite well. And I might know from inside information that another dog at Separk may be part of the future plan.

Lucky for me, when I opened my studio, I already had the perfect mascot, Ash. Ash had been a stray, picked up from a hardware store where he loitered, and taken to a hobby farm in Lexington to be fostered. He was later listed on craigslist as a young dog searching for a permanent home. I happened to be searching craigslist and saw him, drove down to Lexington, put him in the passenger seat of my car, and drove him home. My quick decision to toss him in the car was based on the observations of his living situation and, frankly, a selfish, impulsive whim. I wanted a Black Lab, he was free and needed a home, and he seemed to get along with the donkey, cats, small humans, chickens, and other animals wandering around the hobby farm. How careless of me, and how lucky. He is absolutely perfect. 

But can one ever have too many Labs?

Yesterday, July 27, 2018 the Pfafftown Piano Facebook Page hit 100 likes. One year ago at the same time I was drumming up business, hoping for enough students to fill the studio. I have been teaching and performing music, piano, voice, handbells and organ since I was 13, but never in my OWN studio in my OWN home as the OWNer of the business. This is, truly, a dream come true in every sense of the word; a dream I thought would never be a reality. Teaching music was, for me, typically in a church, a music school, a college, a community center, but never in my own studio. I taught a large crop of underprivileged kids in South Bend, IN at an inner city community center, offering them a chance at creativity for 30 minutes each week, building skills and talents their parents couldn't afford to nurture. I taught little ones, adults, and even the blind in Raleigh, NC at a freshly opened music school owned by someone trying to get his dream business off the ground. I taught children's music in countless churches as internships and jobs in college, with my bag-o-music-tricks with me in my car. In Mill Creek, IN my husband and I started the first children's choir our tiny church had ever had, discovering amazing talent among the handful of children who attended. I have taught organ lessons to college students at Notre Dame University; students who wanted an elective session to get their minds off Psychology, French, or Engineering. 

But never, ever, have I had my OWN place.