It is difficult to fully comprehend why I stopped playing regularly after awhile. What is simple to understand is that once I was out of college and teaching full time, there were no more performance ensembles to play in (except for my own). In my first year teaching, I was promoted to Department Head (Fine Arts) and began putting much effort in the education side of music and art.
I lasted two years at a private day school in Maryland and then one year at a boarding school before getting married and moving to the Berkshires of Massachusetts where I have been living and teaching ever since. The marriage was to a woman with two kids of her own and I was naive to have taken on such a load. I did little playing in the two years of this marriage which left me on somewhat shaky financial ground.
I did, however, get hired as the Camp Program Director at Sunapee Arts Camp in New Hampshire around this time which revived my inner creative spirit. I played, sang and swam in the woods of New Hampshire for 5 summers with the greatest of young artists from New York and Boston. There, I met Joe Marcello and his wife Lynn who introduced me to all things organic and wholesome. My passions for the environment, nutrition and alternative medicine began to take root at this time.
A TURN TOWARDS EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
I began teaching at a public middle school in the Berkshires and began working on my Masters which I achieved 5 years later by attending school at night and paying one class at a time. I am very proud of the work I did there. I learned to do rigorous educational research by Susanne Chandler. My goal at the time was to become a Music or Arts Supervisor. This happened in the same district I still teach in. I held the position for 12 years.
