Despite her accomplished musical resume, it was a somewhat different professional interest that originally brought her to the Triangle area, more than twenty years ago: a Public Health degree. After completing Bachelors and Masters degrees in piano performance, she felt that she wanted to try something completely new, and she signed up for the Peace Corps.  Her assignment took her to Mali, West Africa, where she ended up staying for a total of five years: two as a Peace Corps volunteer, and then an additional three as a health worker in a large oral re-hydration therapy program run by Management Sciences for Health, an international NGO. She loved the experience: "The chance to learn a new language, and live in a completely different environment and culture was wonderful," she says.  "Those five years were absolutely transformative for me."

 

Upon her return to the US she enrolled in one of the leading Public Health Masters programs in the US, which brought her to UNC-Chapel Hill.  She subsequently settled in the area and worked for a number of years for a variety of state and local health agencies, in projects ranging from immunization efforts and breast cancer awareness programs to epidemiology research. The career in public health eventually took a backseat to her passion for music, which was rekindled by playing piano at a local church in the Triangle area in the late 90s. "I enjoyed it so much, and it made me realize that I wanted to go back to music full time," she says. "But it was also equally clear to me that I wanted to head in the direction of collaborative piano, rather than the solo work I had done earlier."  She started teaching, took a position at the Duke University music department - and the rest, as they say, is history (or is, at least, available in her bio).

 

We look forward to working with Deborah, and getting to know more about her during the coming season.

 

"There is No Rose"