As you can see from my picture above, I am a musician who loves to play the piano and violin, write music, and sing.  However, my specialty has been the piano. I began studying the piano when I was five years old under the loving and caring guidance of a dear lady, Mary Helen Harutun, who became like a second mother to me. Mary Helen celebrated her 95th birthday in June of this year. Bruce and I were able to attend her birthday celebration and play at the reception. Although many years have passed and we are separated by many miles, Mary Helen continues to be a inspiration to our lives, not only in a musical sense, but in a spiritual sense as well. 

I had the wonderful privilege of doing my undergraduate and graduate studies in piano performance at Texas Christian University with the acclaimed artist and Viennese School specialist, Madame Lili Kraus. Her love for getting inside the music and her inspiration that came from God taught me so much more than just perfecting my skill. I will never forget what she told me that "playing the piano required faith in God, faith in the music, and faith in yourself." When I told her that Bruce and I would be leaving for Buenos Aires, Argentina to be missionaries she wanted to know how she could be a missionary too! In many ways, during the years that she was alive and traveled all over the world giving concerts, she was a missionary as she gave God thanks for all He had done in her life.

Praise the Lord with the harp, make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to Him a new song, play skillfully, and shout for joy. 
Psalm 33: 2-3