Welcome to music at Stahl Elementary!  Go Stallions!  This is my 26th year of teaching music.  I have been with NEISD for 24 years and at Stahl Elementary for 15 years. I am so very excited about starting the school year.  I cannot wait to meet your children and teach them my love of music.  Music has always been a very big passion in my life and has given me so many beautiful and exciting experiences and opportunities.  I am a native Texan, born and raised in San Antonio.  My family is one of the 13 founding Canary Island families that started this beautiful city 300 years ago.  I have over 47 years of combined musical experience as a music educator and professional performer.   I am an instrumental specialist, with the ability to play and teach almost every musical instrument.  I am also a vocalist with 13 years of choral experience .  My principal discipline is percussion and drum-set.

I began my musical career at a very young age.  My mother instilled a love of music in me every Saturday morning, by playing the records of the hip, most up-to-date artists.  I was never a fan of school until I discovered music.  Music fed me, it gave me opportunities to dream, to create, to be part of a group.  I don’t know what my life would have been without music, because music has always been with me.

In 6^th grade, I wanted to join the band.  My chosen instrument was percussion.  With the support of my “fearless” mother, I was given the opportunity to try for a place in percussion.  I studied with so many great musicians, including Dan Schrieber and Charlie Fox.  I was one of the few who blazed the trail of a female, percussion, marching band musician.  I helped to break the stereo type and I took with me the understanding that ALL children deserve the opportunity to fulfill their destiny. 

While in high school, I began to perform in a variety rock band.  I was 15 and fearless.  I loved the challenge.  I loved learning new music and experiencing the different musicians and each one’s unique musical gift.  Music took me to many different places, throughout the United States and many different genres.  I traveled, I experienced, I learned and I grew.  I loved being on stage with hundreds in the crowd.  The energy was indescribable, but it was really about music for me.  I wanted to learn more about music.  As we toured throughout the United States, it came to me.  Although I am a musician at heart, my favorite type of music is music itself. I began to re-evaluate my life and where I needed to go next.  In the end, I decided to seek a higher level of musical education and eventually found my way to St. Mary’s University. There I received the ‘Presidential Academic Scholarship’ for Education and the ‘Langlinais Scholarship’ for Music.  I studied under John Rankin, Alice Gomez (SAC), Marilyn Rife and many other talented directors who paved my path.  I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a concentration on Music Education, from St. Mary's University; graduating Cum Laude.

While in the presence of my mentors, it became clear I was meant to teach.  But teaching is not the whole story.  As a young girl, in a single-family household, on the North West side of San Antonio, I knew what music had done for me.  Music filled my mind, it fed my soul, it gave me purpose and led me to a fulfilled life.  I knew I needed to share music with as many deserving children as I could. 

Initially, I taught in Pleasanton, Texas.  I began my teaching career as the Head Junior High School band director, conducting all Beginning, Concert and Symphonic Bands. In addition, I was responsible for all general music classes for grades 3rd through 5^th, at Pleasanton Intermediary School. I served as percussion instructor for Pleasanton High School, where I assisted and instructed instrumental music lessons. My responsibilities also included, directing the Pleasanton Junior High School Band at football games, graduation ceremonies, and public performances around Pleasanton and the surrounding areas. I gained experience serving as a percussion instructor for the Poteet Independent School District, where I taught and composed marching band percussion. I was responsible for the percussion section for the high school band.   I accomplished all of this while obtaining my “ lifetime”, all level, music teaching certification from the state of Texas.

After a couple of years there, I continued my educational career by joining my dream district, NEISD.  I was offered the head band director position at Nimitz Middle School. At Nimitz, I directed the Beginning, Symphonic, Concert and Jazz Bands.  I also administered private lessons to disadvantaged students. These were some of my most fulfilling years for me as an educator.  Some of my students from Nimitz are now my colleagues here in the fine arts music department at NEISD. Some have served in wars, some are parents, some are grandparents. They stop me to remind me of what our shared experience meant in their life.  I remember them all and I could not be prouder. 

After 10 fulfilling years of teaching at the middle school level, I made the move to Stahl Elementary School.  I have had the opportunity to introduce so many children to the music I love so much. Not all students will become musicians, singers, or educators, but all will have been exposed to music. Music has been shown to increase test scores across other disciplines.  Music strengthens teamwork, discipline, creativity, and neurological connections between the hemispheres of the brain.  I believe every child’s life can be enriched through music.  In my 26 years of teaching, I know this to be true. It is with great gratitude and honor that I continue to spread my found gift of music.  For music does not know, nor does it care, what your social economic group is. Music knows no boxes nor groups, it transpires all oceans, lands and sky.  It is infinite and it loves, sooths, comforts, energizes, moves, encourages, empathizes and inspires.  For now I am where I need to be, introducing the children of Stahl Elementary School to the world of endless creativity I call music.