Marcy is a musician, educator, photographer and mother. She began playing violin at the age of 5 and, though she grew up training classically, she was raised on the music of Woody Guthrie. In the summers, her parents would drive her to see Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger perform at folk festivals. These concerts informed the way she thinks about the role of song in oral storytelling. Now her true passion is American fiddle music— particularly music rooted in the old-time tradition, which is passed down aurally from person to person. Marcy plays a variety of stringed instruments, but these days finds herself reaching most for fiddle and banjo.

As an educator, Marcy has worked for over ten years with students ranging from age three through eighteen. She holds a degree in music education from Missouri State University, and a certificate in Suzuki violin pedagogy from the Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute. A strong advocate of the Suzuki philosophy that any child can play, Marcy believes in nurturing the unique language of music in each child, and combines this tenet with her passion for passing down traditional music and getting it into the ears and hearts of young people.

Marcy and her family recently moved from Los Angeles, where she taught Orchestra in both public and Montessori schools, played with UCLA’s Old Time String Band, and also did some recording for film and television. She became enchanted by City of Fountains when she and her husband attended the parent-child program last year with their daughter Polly, who will be in kindergarten this year.