I was born and brought up in the USA, spending a good part of my childhood living on a large farm in  rural Maryland. With an Iraqi father and a German mother, I grew up valuing the diversity and depth of European and Middle Eastern cultures and not least, appreciating the tremendous developmental power of storytelling and music to the young mind. From an early age I was emersed in the folklore and traditions of my parents' distinctive ethnic backgrounds, with my father in particular being a wonderful teller of stories from his Arab childhood. My mother for her part was a ballet teacher and played a number of musical instruments. Through her I came to appreciate music and to value the beauty and power of dance and movement as both an art form and a form of creative expression. With my mother's encouragement I started playing the piano and learned how to read music at a young age, attending lessons for more than ten years.

I have lived for most of my adult years outside of the US, most recently having spent 6 years in The Netherlands, before moving to Ireland in August 2005 with my husband  and our  young children. We plan to stay here for the foreseeable future and raise our family here in Ireland.

It was during our time in Holland that I discovered Kindermusik. After my daughter was born I had been looking for an activity that the two of us could share, which would first of all be fun and would also be creative and educational for her. We started attending Kindermusik classes and I was delighted by what I found: not only were the classes a lot of fun, being truly quality time between the two of us, but I also found that the content and the quality of the provided materials far exceeded my expectations.  The music  is selected from all over the world and comes in all sorts of moods, timbres, rhythms, keys and arrangements.  The CDs that accompany the classes are particularly impressive, with the arrangements emphasising the diversity of the sources. And then there is the unique idea to bring the music home to the family with the home materials, so that everyone, like the other parent or siblings can take part, even if they have no time to attend the classes during the week. Finally, perhaps the most important aspect of Kindermusik that impresses me is that the parent is so actively involved in the class along with their child.   On top of the direct benefits from the classes themselves, I found the classes to be a social event with other like-minded parents and through them I developed a close-knit network of friends that I maintained long after the classes had finished. It was because of all of these factors and in particular having seen how my daughter benefitted from the classes I decided that I myself would train to become a Kindermusik educator and try to bring the same experience to others.