Hello, Bonjour,
French:
I am a French native, born in Paris, and have lived in the US for 35 years, so I perfectly bilingual in French and English. I am highly educated, a graduate of the prestigious French business school H.E.C. and of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at Catholic University, have traveled the world as a "diplomat brat," and have a wide range of interests. I am passionate about the French language and French culture--I might teach you a few French recipes--and apply to my teaching the same creativity which originally led me to become a professional musician. Having worked mainly in that capacity for the past 30 years, I have a lot of teaching experience with students of all age groups. I believe that my musician's ear is a great asset when it comes to conveying the nuances of French pronunciation. Most of all, I want the learning experience to be productive while appearing as joyous and painless as possible. Ideally, it should be as pleasurable and rewarding as spending the summer traveling around France with a rail pass. All on board...
Music:
My musical background is a bit unusual in that it combines the practice of an oral tradition with schooling in Western art music composition and in musicology and ethnomusicology. I have been performing, teaching, and researching Irish traditional music in the Washington DC area for the past 35 years. I started out learning to play entirely by ear, but learned to read and write music, eventually obtaining a Masters degree in composition, and studied the musics of the world's cultures as an ethnomusicologist. This puts me in a great position to understand the importance of both ways to music and to be able to help those who wish to become more complete musicians by improving their grasp of one side or the other.
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