Gina had wanted to be a teacher since the age of 4 and there was no doubt that she would become one as she was constantly playing ‘teacher’ with her brother. She began her musician career at the age of 9 when she started taking piano lessons. She was told from the beginning that this was a late start for a child to learn piano and that she would not catch up to other kids her age. This sparked a drive in Gina to work hard, practice and dedicate many areas of her life to music. She was taking piano, theory and history lessons on top of starting private alto sax lessons at the age of 12.

 

Where Gina really started focusing on becoming a music teacher was in the ninth grade when she saw her high school teacher, teaching and playing every instrument in band. There was no question or doubt in her mind that she wanted to be a music teacher. Gina was part of every band in high school and really focused on her piano playing to audition for university.

 

She then went on to attend Western University in London, Ontario where she obtained a Bachelor’s of Music Education intending on teaching high school music. When she did not get into teacher’s college for high school, she had to go another route and decided to apply for elementary teaching. Gina attended Niagara University to complete her Bachelor’s of Education and got her license to teach in Ontario.