She was blind and insensible to many things,
and dimly knew it; but to all that was light and air,
perfume and colour, every drop of her blood in her responded.
Summer, Edith Wharton
Deborah Masterson
This picture says a lot about me…
who I am, and what I like. It was taken in Buyeo, Korea while I was there as part of four-person team to compete in the World Samulnori Gyorugi and Festival.
Though I have studied Korean instruments for many years, for our team’s “fusion” version of a traditional piece, I was playing the Brazilian berimbau. An older Korean gentleman approached me and said, “You play and then we’ll dance!”
Drumming is my path.
In March 2001, I completed three years of training and received certification as a TaKeTiNa rhythm teacher; in 2011, I completed and additional year-and-a-half of training and earned advanced certification. I lead TaKeTiNa rhythm meditations on the island of O`ahu and co-lead workshops on the mainland US. Also, I annually contribute to the Hawai`i Shakespeare Festival and occasionally to other local theater productions, providing original music.
My introduction to drumming was through traditional Korean music and dance. I studied ten years with the Halla Huhm Korean Dance Studio here in Hawai`i.
I also spent a couple of summers in Seoul studying various forms of Korean drumming including Samulnori. I have had the privilege to compete four years (most recently in 2006) in the mind-blowing World Samulnori Competition. I’m always happy to hear from samulnori fans/students/professionals. My current drumming interests include African dundun, Middle Eastern dumbek and frame, and Afro-Cuban congas.
my day job
As publications specialist for the National Foreign Language Resource Center, I am in charge of publishing and distributing the many publications we produce.
The emphasis of these innovative language publications and teaching materials –many of them free– is on the less commonly taught languages of the Pacific Rim. Publications, both digital and traditional, include acquisition research and resources for teaching Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Manchu, Thai, Vietnamese, and more.
brief bio
I grew up in Glendale, California, a white-bread suburb of L.A. I got my BA in Fine Art and have had a variety of art-related jobs from modeling for drawing classes to drafting blueprints for a structural-steel building manufacturer. I currently do graphic design jobs on the side. While doing the starving-artist shtick in Mexico, I became interested, partly though necessity, in languages and language teaching. After four years, I returned to the US to study Linguistics/TESOL. I taught English for a year in South Korea, and then went on to the University of Hawai`i to do a PhD in Linguistics focusing on a comparison of Korean and English syntax and examining various methods of extracting grammaticality judgments.
