My sister Beth on the right and I

Kindness~ 
​The Nicest Things Artists Have Done For Me : [Special Thanks]

FRIENDS, MENTORS, SUPPORTERS:
1. Thank you to Chatham University for accepting me, a non-millennial, into the M.F.A. program. Special thanks to Sheila S. for being my Thesis Director, Paul B. and Sarah S. for being my readers and class professors. Thank you Marc N. for your patient assistance as my advisor. (I was a fiction and nonfiction major and had to decide on which one to focus. It was a difficult process.) Thank you to the other professors who taught classes. The work challenged my brain to build synapses connections: Sheryl St. G., Heather M., Lori J., and Dave N..
So far, I've read books by a most of them: Swamp Songs, Junkette, Miss New York Has Everything, Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love and Landscape, Beautiful Nerve, and Mostly Human. All are entertaining in their individual ways. I will eventually read others by them and classmates, too.
2. Dr. Janet S. from The U of Arizona has been very kind through the years, willing to give me a recommendation when I need one. I worked as her TA during music graduate school.
3. Bonné B. was my coworker at Borders, is an inspiration as a writer and an artist. She has been very supportive throughout the years.
4. Robin and Ivo always listen to my dreamy endeavors, the many that I share with them on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, and are unconditionally supportive, even after I fail.
5. Nancy T., a parent of a graduated student, a student to whom I taught clarinet for eight years, has written recommendations and has offered a helping hand when I was in need. She is a wonderful person.
6. Mr. Tom Hyman was my mentor from Long Ridge Writers Group. After taking their writing test, I ended up with him as my mentor. He has six fiction books published and one nonfiction book published. I read his Jupiter's Daughter over the summer of 2015 and enjoyed it very much!

MUSICIANS:
Thank you to my clarinet teachers:
1. John Schwartz coached me to first chair in the District Orchestra after I took one year of lessons in high school.
2. Russell Dagon called me out of the blue after I graduated from Northwestern and encouraged me to never quit. He said it was never too late [to reach my goals].
3. Clark Brody made me a clarinet reed in his basement off of his reed du-al machine. It was the best reed I had ever played on.
4. Jerry Kirkbride recommended the U of Arizona give me scholarship money to study with him for my Masters Degree. He let me house sit for him while he was on vacation so I could find a place to live out there.
5. Daniel Gilbert took me to Severance Hall for a lesson and let me sit in the principal chair. Then, I turned to him and said, "You should sit here. Let's switch." So, I got to sit in Dan's chair, too.
6. Robert Marcellus accepted me into NU after my audition and coached me in masterclasses.
7. Thanks to Mitchell Lurie, soloist, who let me play for him in masterclasses.

Thank you to my voice teachers:
Leon Thurman, B. Keller, J. Barsotti, Carolyn Smith, and Cynthia Wohlschlager.

Thank you to others with whom I've worked:
Adam Whiting, Wonderful Piano Collaborator
Tim Robson, Choir Director and organist Emeritus of Euclid Avenue Congregational Church, hired me as a soprano section leader and soloist.
Halida Dinova, pianist, collaborated with me on my recording at CSU and on the recording of Mother Nature art songs.
Dr. Lipkis taught me a few private composition lessons at Moravian College and also orchestration.
Mrs. Hall was my piano and theory teacher when I was a kid.
Mr. Van Auken taught me piano lessons, also.
Dorota Sobieska hired me to sing with Opera Circle.

FAMILY ARTISTS:
My sister, Beth Falcone, was my piano collaborator for free when we were kids. She is six years older and could play the felt socks off the piano when I was five. She invited me to play the Poulenc Clarinet Sonata on a piano recital of hers, when I was a freshman. Beth also was my collaborator for free while we attended Northwestern  together; she was a Masters Degree candidate, and I was a Bachelors Degree clarinet performance major.
maestramusic.org/profile/beth-falcone/
wandasworldmusical.com

​My brother-in-law, Ritt Henn, bassist, songwriter, filmmaker is from the North East! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04nj_nKNKaA
All Kidding Aside 
https://play.spotify.com/album/4tDgex8WjdqYaxnEkheZn9

My father, retired tenor and music teacher, took me to piano, some clarinet, and some voice lessons as I grew up. He also bought me B-flat and A clarinets.
My mother was an English teacher and taught me to read by the time I was three. Oh, she also was a singer and did an opera workshop with Marjorie Lawrence. She may have met my father there; I mean, he was definitely there with her, but I don't know how they met. Unfortunately, my mother disappeared when I was three-ish. I am now turning what was definitely a Fictional Autobiography about this into a true memoir, and my opera is about this, but the opera will be fictionalized; in other words, it will have magical elements. 

What I Have Done and Am Doing for Others:
1. Many of my students stick with me until graduation. Some have gone on to college for careers such as Art Teacher, Dentist, Nurse, and Special Education. A few have chosen music as their specialty.
2. I was a trained Hospice Volunteer with Hospice of the Western Reserve. I sang with patients, sat with them, helped with laundry, or provided respite for family from February 2013 to May 2015. Then, I went back to school and stopped volunteering with them. I may be back there or somewhere else at some point. 
3. I performed with voice/clarinet and coordinated my clarinet and voice students to perform a few times per year at a hospital for their Alzheimer's patients.          
           Hospital Coordinator: "I just wanted to thank you and your students for your wonderful performance with our seniors.  I can't tell you how much our seniors truly appreciate the music.  Every time your group performs, the clients and staff talk about it for days.  Please tell the students how much their music means to the seniors and how much all of us who work here appreciate their time and dedication.  It is a wonderful service all of you are providing."

           A note from Richmond Heights Medical Center: "Thank you for the holiday presentation you [Ms. Falcone] put together for us.  It was excellent.  Sometimes it may not seem that the patients are not that tuned in, but you would be surprised how many of them talk about the performances days after.  We all appreciate the efforts of you and your students."

4. I've donated a scarce amount of money, money that was given to me for no apparent reason that I didn't feel I could take, to The Orphan Society of America, http://theorphansociety.org/ I'm talkin' less than $100, but I love this organization that I found by accident surfing the web and felt like mentioning them.
5. I have written two letters a year apart to my Senators about the importance of music education and music in general.