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They say that those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach. But don’t tell that to Connie Karpinski Starmer ’76, M.M. ’80. She can — and does — both, performing a constant juggling act as a teacher, parent, and pianist. Starmer is a full-time music educator — beginning her 14th year at Cortland City Schools as a kindergarten-through-sixth grade general music teacher — who operates a large private piano studio at her home four nights a week and Sundays. Add to that her full-time job as mom to her own two budding musicians, daughter Mia, 12, a flutist, and son Luke, 10, who studies drums and violin. (Her husband, Ron, an associate professor of English at Tompkins Cortland Community College, rounds out the musical clan: he plays guitar and har- monica.) With all this, Starmer still takes time to sit down at the piano herself, although that’s a luxury often saved up until the summer months. "When you are teaching seven classes a day, it’s so busy," she says, "and if you want to do a really good job you have to totally immerse yourself in what you’re doing in the classroom." Although her goal may not be the full-blown recitals for which she spent
four to six hours a day practicing while a student, the relationship between
her instrument and her teaching remains an important one. "I was very
aware that my undergraduate and graduate years were my time to study my
instrument," says Starmer. "I vowed that I would not lose that relationship."
So Starmer continues to go back to work on old favorites, such as Beethoven’s
"Moonlight Sonata," as well as tackle new ones. Her current practice repertoire
includes a piece by Debussy, a Rachmaninoff prelude, and a Brahms intermezzo.
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