Instruments
Voice
Beginner/Intermediate Ukulele, Guitar and Recorder
Education
WWU: BA Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Planet: Integrating Scientific, Feminist, and Holistic Perspectives
WWU: BA Environmental Studies
WWU: BA Woodring School of Education K-8 General Ed
K-12 Choral Endorsement
ELL Endorsement
Services
Music lessons for all ages
Voice technique
Performance
Group singing/choir
Using stringed instruments to support singing
Support for budding musicians to find their musical self
Musical self-expression
Bio
I was born in the Pacific NW and lived here until the tender age of 3 when my parents decided to join the military as civil servants and teach military dependents overseas. For the next 10 years we lived in Japan, Okinawa and Germany, with frequent travels to many other places and periodic trips back home to Washington.
Music was one of the backdrops that helped me both survive and flourish inside the ever-changing landscape of my childhood. It was/is a way to express feelings I had no words for, an avenue for finding presence in myself, and a way to deeply connect with others– even without any social history, while responding to a myriad of outside changes and inputs. All my favorite memories have a backdrop of song/music.
My road to teaching music has also been an alternate one! I have studied voice, guitar, piano and ukulele with private teachers, directors and peers and by myself. I have taught music (voice/choir, guitar, ukulele, recorder) in public schools, private schools and in before/after school programs. I have taught private lessons one-on-one and to small groups. I’ve directed choirs of all ages… including 9 years directing a Middle School Choir that received superior ratings at festivals, and a community choir at a local school that included children, parents AND teachers. I have co-directed middle school talent shows and have been the vocal coach for middle school musicals.
I perform on stages, in coffee shops, in cars and around campfires, in choirs, small performing groups both singing and playing an instrument.
My philosophy is that if you can talk, you can sing. And that musical self-expression is an inherent and inherently joyful part of being human. I see my role as a gate opener for people who want to find their own way to their inner musician.
I also believe performance is not a necessary part of musical expression (as participating in music IS an inherently joyful activity), but may grow in importance as a student finds a growing desire to share/communicate their music.
I am here to help you gain confidence in your musical self-expression, whatever your goals!!
Current Projects
Vox Pacifica choir member and soloist
Nuckles-Flinn Duo as vocalist, ukulele and guitar player
Crooning Cronie Choir Director at Solstice Sr. Living
Contracted to teach music classes at Bellingham Family Partnership Program in the Fall.
Influences
Carol King, Stevie Wonder, Sinead O’Connor, Taylor Swift, Barbara Streisand, Peter Paul and Mary, Mamas and the Papas, Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, B-52s, Sandy Denny, Nat King Cole, Talking Heads, Crosby Stills and Nash, many early musicals
