I was arts columnist and music critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I was also arts writer for The New Tribune in Tacoma Washington, and music critic and arts reporter for Seattle Weekly. I have a Master's degree in music from the Juilliard School in New York, and have performed in Asia, Europe and North America and lived and worked in Italy and in China, where I spent a year as artist-in-residence at the Central Conservatory in Beijing.

I have written on the arts for numerous publications, including as music critic in the early days of Salon.com, and for Newsweek, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and the London Evening Standard and was rcently a contributor to the new edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians. I have won several awards for arts criticism and reporting, including a National Arts Journalism Program Fellowship at Columbia University and a Deems Taylor/ASCAP Award for music journalism. I was recently named one of 100 Outstanding Graduates of the Juilliard School for the school's centennial. I live in Seattle.