“equal parts hype queen, patient guide, and creative powerhouse”
Why hello there! Happy you found me on the good old internet.
I’m Tiffany, and I do many things.
I started my career as a classical clarinetist and professor of clarinet, music theory, and many other fun things. Then I found my way into digital content, entrepreneurship, marketing, and consulting. (I was always interested in graphic design, storytelling, and getting people on board with my enthusiasm, so all of that made a lot of sense in hindsight.)
After living everywhere from Rochester to Germany to now Berkeley, my current day job is being the Associate Director of Marketing at Cal Performances at UC Berkeley. I love it.
But my main job these days is being my son's mom and most enthusiastic playmate and teacher. (Wolfie, as we call him, was born Jan 7, 2025.)
When I started to think about how I could continue spreading my enthusiasm and helping the world with much less time than I've had before, there seemed a very natural fit for my current moment: sharing all the ways my former and current selves have come together to create a magical, screen-free, music-filled, enriching life for Wolfie.
So, here we are! A platform dedicated to screen-free learning & playing, with a lot of stories and yapping along the way.
BULLET POINT VERSION
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Mom of Wolfie (born Jan 7, 2025) living in Berkeley, CA
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Obsessed with teaching & learning since I can remember; also obsessed with pens, East Fork Pottery and Heath Ceramics, good dark chocolate, real food, cotton clothes.... I'll stop.
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Found music in middle school and later decided to combine my loves for performing/music/teaching and become a clarinet professor. That led some interesting places from upstate NY to Germany.
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Spent (too many) years in school getting a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance & literature from the Eastman School of Music plus stops at FSU (undergrad) and Trossingen, Germany for some chamber music studies in the Black Forest...
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Vygotsky/Teaching & Learning became a central part of my doctoral studies in 2014 when I took a course on teaching music to children and then courses on improvisation...
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During and after school, I taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, Nazareth College, Syracuse University, SF Conservatory, and too many more places to remember.
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Presented on various topics about the clarinet and pedagogy at a lot of conferences from Virginia to Belgium
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Performed at as a soloist and frequent substitute with the Richmond Symphony and a whole lotta other places and with a lot of great friends
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Then, moved to the Bay Area in 2021. Had to stop my university teaching gig but had co-built a digital education platform for musicians/clarinetists... so had built some pretty serious digital content skills. I applied to and got a job doing digital content/social media at Cal Performances, a big performing arts presenter at UC Berkeley.
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On the side, I started Tiffany Valvo Creative and consulted with a lot of amazing creatives to build their brand, digital presence, content strategy and more. It was incredibly enriching! But, when Wolfie was born, there was a little less time for that...
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My current day job is being the Associate Director of Marketing at Cal Performances, which I started with Wolfie was 6 months old.
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In the other hours of the day, I mostly cook food for my family and play with Wolfie. Although, somehow I still finding time to fit in other odds and ends... like this. ;)