After a professional career as an economist and researcher, my passions carried me into the realms of music and poetry where I have had opportunities to explore new avenues, including learning to play accordion and arrange music.
My musical background included piano lessons as a young child; teaching myself to play mandolin at age eleven; and playing alto saxophone in high school band and stage band. In the early 1980s, I studied violin with Kathryn Hoffer (concertmaster with the Anchorage Symphony).
From the mid-1980s through mid-1990s, I played saxophone in the Mat-Su (Alaska) Community Band. In 2018, oddly enough, I was recruited by the concertmaster with the Bend (Oregon) Community Orchestra (later rebranded as the Bend Pops Orchestra) where I played 2nd violin until the pandemic halted rehearsals.
As a beginning accordion player, in 2014, I joined the Central Oregon Accordion Club, and began accordion lessons with Karl Kment. Besides studying a range of repertoire and musical styles, Karl added arranging to my lesson assignments. Later, he provided an introduction to composer, Mark Greathouse. I arranged several of Mark’s piano compositions for accordion (and other) ensembles.
As I became more proficient with accordion, I performed with Central Oregon Accordion Club members at assisted living residences in Bend (Oregon) and at several other events in the Pacific Northwest. When the pandemic halted in-person rehearsals, the Central Oregon Accordion Club pivoted to Zoom “solo sessions” which turned out to be wildly popular and gave club members and, other accordion players who joined in, a reason to keep practicing.
Arrangements, Published
Copy Cat, composed for piano by Mark Greathouse. Arranged for accordion duet and published in Northwest Accordion News, Fall 2017.
Clown Dance, composed for piano by Mark Greathouse. Arranged for accordion trio and published in Northwest Accordion News, Fall 2018.
Arrangements, Performed
Copy Cat, arranged for accordion quartet (2018) and also for two violins, flute and accordion (2019).
A Portland, Oregon accordion quartet performed Copy Cat Quartet at the Rose City Accordion Club, Accordion Camp in June 2019. [YouTube link: https://youtu.be/kshkPfSxRpY]
Copy Cat Quartet was performed by a Bend Pops Orchestra ensemble (2 violins, flute, and accordion) at the Bowman Museum in Prineville, Oregon (October 2019). I played accordion with the quartet. [YouTube link: https://youtu.be/dKt0dUJrklk]
Clown Dance was performed by a Portland, Oregon trio in June 2018. [YouTube link: https://youtu.be/KNOKWqZATNs]
Go Tell It On The Mountain, Carol of the Bells, and Huron Carol were performed at a Bend Pops Orchestra holiday event at Barnes & Noble in Bend, Oregon (2019). The trio arrangements were for two violins and accordion. (I played accordion.)
Arrangements, Not Yet Published
Kidding by Mark Greathouse. Arranged for two accordions.
Carol of the Bells and Huron Carol arranged for accordion trio (or quartet); second version for 2 violins, flute and accordion.
Go Tell It On The Mountain arranged for accordion trio; second version for 2 violins and accordion.
Varpunen jouluaamuna (Sparrow on Christmas Morning) arranged for accordion quartet; also for 2 violins, flute and accordion.
Two Guitars, A Paraphrase for accordion quartet.
Beautiful Days Waltz (Pietro Deiro, 1916), arranged for accordion trio.
Fire Drill March (Harry J Lincoln, 1909), arranged for accordion duet.
Schön Rosmarin (Fritz Kreizler), arranged for accordion solo by Katie Eberhart and Karl Kment.
Caprice Viennois (Fritz Kreizler), arranged for accordion solo with advice from Karl Kment.
Tu Sais (Serge Walter, 1923) arranged for accordion trio.
Articles
Tango in D – Prologue*, Northwest Accordion News, Winter Quarter 2019.
Alpenfest’s Ad Hoc Accordions, Northwest Accordion News, Winter Quarter 2016.
Overture to Castelfidardo, Northwest Accordion News, Fall Quarter 2014.
Notes
*Karl Kment’s arrangement of Tango in D (Isaac Albéniz) was published in Northwest Accordion News (Winter 2019). [Solo performance of Tango in D by Karl Kment. YouTube link: https://youtu.be/OIZH2qTXkZ4]