Rancho La Puerta 2026

April 15, 2026April 16, 20262 Comments

: lunch with Kathy

: Paella on the terrace with amazing RLP kitchen staff

: Deborah Szekely

: bougainvillea

: activity pool

: poolside

: a sweet bench

: Kathy and Laura

: beautiful views everywhere!

: inspiring place to journal

: daily quote board

: piano concert in Oak Tree Pavillion

My latest visit to Rancho La Puerta, a world-renowned health and wellness resort in Tecate, Mexico, marked my 17th year as a musical guest at the Ranch. With 40 miles of hiking trails, delicious vegetarian food, stunning gardens, meandering brick paths, swimming pools, fitness classes, and, of course, a gorgeous Steinway B piano and dreamy performance space, the Ranch is my idea of heaven on earth.

While there, I presented two singing classes and a piano concert. My day included early morning practicing from 6–8 a.m. followed by swimming, soaking, yoga, and long walks. I brought my dear friend Kathy Lee as a guest, and she delighted in attending a variety of fitness classes, morning hikes, tennis, pickleball, Pilates, and lectures on diet and brain health.

One of the highlights of my week, in addition to seeing old friends from past visits, was a dinner for the presenters hosted by the Ranch’s co-founder, Deborah Szekely, who will turn 104 in May. During the dinner, she offered sage advice on living a long and healthy life: stay curious, follow the Ranch diet, and remain positive. Her mind is sharp, her stories engaging, and she continues inspiring others toward leading healthy, vibrant, and impactful lives. At the dinner she asked me to lead the group in a song, I chose a simple old camp tune that seems perfect for the tranquil Ranch atmosphere: “I’ve Got Peace like a River.”

Stay curious! Consider learning to play the piano- a wonderful way to engage your brain while adding artistic beauty and joy to your daily life. Play Piano Today with Laura Dean

Living it up with Liam in Livingston

August 28, 20253 Comments

My nephew Liam and I recently spent a couple of days and nights in Livingston, Montana. Livingston is a historic railroad town near the North Entrance of Yellowstone Park. Many of the original buildings remain intact or have been painstakingly restored. The charming downtown area welcomes visitors with eclectic shops, bright flower baskets, and an artsy vibe. Liam and I visited the Railway Station Museum, bowled at the local bowling alley, walked along the Yellowstone River, strolled through Sacajawea Park, dined out, and explored many of the wonderful thrift stores and boutiques. We also joined an evening art walk where we saw several works by the artist David Rathman, who is originally from my hometown of Choteau, Montana.

After our Livingston segment, my brother and I drove from his home in Clyde Park (near Livingston) to Great Falls to visit my mom. The original Dean trio had a great time visiting the former homes of our beloved grandparents, reminiscing about our childhood, sipping afternoon coffee at the Buffalo Blanc coffee shop across from Central High, cooking dinner together, and swimming at my mom’s condo.

Liam loves music, records, and vintage finds. He introduced me to a song by the progressive rock band from the 1970s called England, and in particular, the song —“All Alone” from their album —Garden Shed. Liam asked me if I could play the piece. I failed to find the sheet music for this obscure track, but I composed something inspired by it…

Liam’s Prelude:

Liam’s Prelude played by Laura Dean

I Get By with a Little Help from AI

February 4, 2025Leave a comment

Written by Laura Dean and Chat GPT

I just submitted this article to the Clarion, the bi-monthly publication of the Washington State Music Teacher’s Association, and I thought my readers may find it interesting. By the way, this is the first article I have written with the help of openAI.

Have any of you dipped your toe into the world of Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI? I have. I have used AI to generate a set list for a Gen Z couple who hired me to play for their wedding ceremony and the cocktail hour. I’ve used it to create a short narrative about the major musical time periods for a concert that I’ve given featuring composers from the Baroque to the 21^st Century. I’ve use it to find weekly music riddles for my students that I write on a white board at the entrance of my studio. I have embraced ChatGPT as a personal administrative and research assistant who is available to answer my requests 24/7. AI has saved me hours of time and energy, and I think we can all agree that time and energy are among our greatest resources.

AI is rapidly becoming a valuable tool for independent music teachers. While some educators may feel hesitant to embrace technology, AI can simplify many aspects of studio management and instruction. Here are a few practical ways AI can enhance your work life while saving hours of labor.

1. Music Theory Assistance

AI-powered chat tools like ChatGPT can generate explanations, exercises, and quizzes tailored to your students’ needs. If a student is struggling with key signatures, AI can instantly create customized drills or explain concepts in new ways.

2. Music History Insights

Need a quick historical background on a composer or musical style? AI can summarize key information, suggest repertoire based on a student’s interests, or even help craft engaging storytelling for lessons.

3. Organizing Your Busy Schedule

AI can help structure your week by generating lesson plans, reminders, and task lists. Tools like Google Calendar’s AI scheduling suggestions or Notion AI can assist in balancing teaching, practice time, and administrative tasks. AI-generated to-do lists can prioritize important tasks, for example, aiding in recital planning, student follow-ups, and lesson prep.

4. Project & Recital Planning

AI can assist in creating structured project plans, timelines, and even recital programs. Tools like Notion AI or ChatGPT can generate theme ideas, student progress checklists, and repertoire suggestions based on difficulty level and performance goals.

5. Marketing & Social Media

For teachers looking to grow their studios, AI can help generate website content, write engaging social media posts, or draft newsletters. Canva’s Magic Write and ChatGPT can quickly create compelling descriptions for lessons, events, or studio promotions.

Getting Started with AI

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is available for free at https://chat.openai.com, with enhanced features available through a paid subscription. Other AI tools, such as Google’s Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, offer similar capabilities.

Embracing AI doesn’t mean replacing the human touch in teaching—it simply enhances our ability to be more efficient, creative, and responsive to students’ needs. By incorporating AI thoughtfully, independent music teachers can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time focusing on what truly matters: making music.

Now excuse me, what with all the time that I saved co-writing this article with ChatGPT, I’m stepping out for a long leisurely walk.

By the way, is 2025 the year that you’ve promised yourself that you are going to learn how to play the piano? You may be interested in checking out my online beginning piano course:

PLEASE VISIT ME ON TEACHABLE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO SIGN UP FOR PLAY PIANO TODAY COURSE: AN INTRODUCTORY PIANO COURSE.

More news…I have a newish Youtube channel, and here you can find weekly videos including piano performances and piano tutorials. Be sure to subscribe on the Youtube site! I release a new video each week! https://www.youtube.com/@lauramusicstudio

Rancho La Puerta 2023

April 18, 2023April 18, 20231 Comment

Rancho La Puerta is a wellness resort in Tecate, Mexico, dating back to the 1940s. My first visit to Rancho La Puerta was in 2009. Since then, I’ve returned to the Ranch as a musical guest some ten times! This year, I took my daughter Ruby along as my side kick, and we had a wonderful time. Personal highlights of the week included hiking, swimming, fitness classes, wandering through the meandering gardens, reading by the pool, eating award winning vegan meals, and best of all: connecting with old friends and staff members from years past, as well as meeting new friends. In short, a trip to the ranch felt like coming home.

During the week, I presented an evening solo piano concert based on my book which rolled off the presses about a year ago: Music in the Westward Expansion: Songs of Heart and Place on the American Frontier. I also led a class called “Sing-along with Laura,” an hour filled with standards, show tunes, and pop favorites.

A week at Rancho La Puerta encourages slowing down, breathing deeply, and living in the moment. Indeed these are gifts available to us every day of the year wherever we are! Try it now…… take a big breath in and a long, audible exhale…..Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Now, don’t you feel better?

Sunrise on the Coyote Hike – photo by hike leader Luis! Thanks Luis

Iceland Adventure

March 7, 2023March 8, 20232 Comments

Joe and I recently returned from a quick trip to Iceland, the icy wonderland in the North Atlantic which is home to around 350,000 people. On our first day we explored the capitol city of Reykjavik on foot. On our walk, we watched gorgeous swans, ducks and geese swimming and posing in a large city pond, we ambled down cobbled city streets and marveled at the mix of historic and modern buildings, and we lunched in a fabulous vegan cafe called Mama Reykjavik.

One evening we took a boat ride to view the Northern Lights (great adventure, but alas, no lights.) We soaked in the famous blue lagoon where we rubbed mud all over our faces and let the mineral rich water soak into our skin. On our penultimate day, we took a 7- hour bus tour of the Golden Circle which drove us along miles and miles of highway with spectacular views of the snow covered landscape, Stops along the way included Gullfoss Waterfall, Geysir Geothermal Area, Þingvellir National Park, and the Kerid Crater (where we hiked around the icy edge).

Rose, our guide on the Golden Circle explained the gastronomical delights of Iceland including fish soup, lamb stew, and on the wilder side, sheep’s head, and fermented shark. As Joe and I stick to a vegan diet, we were happy to find plenty of options in Reykveck.

Thanks to it’s abundant geothermic activity, hot water heats homes throughout the country, as well as provides hot water for hundreds of public pools, and natural soaking spots which Icelanders enjoy throughout the country-in every village and town. Add Along with abundant soaking and swimming pools, Iceland boasts sleek modern buildings, free health care and educational systems, and a nearly crime-free oasis where the policeman don’t even carry guns because it is so safe. Indeed, Iceland is a chilly oasis of civility in the north Atlantic.

To get a sense of the vastness and open space, watch the 2016 movie Rams, available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV, about two estranged, sheep-farmer brothers who live next door to each other and haven’t spoken in 40 years who come together for the good of the family sheep stock. Gives a good look at the desolate, icy landscape of rural Iceland.

Víkingur Ólafsson, word-renowned Icelandic pianist, records music as serene, stunning, and clean as the Icelandic landscape. His newest recording, From Afar, features 22 works including Icelandic folk songs, along with romantic and contemporary pieces. Listen to his Ave Maria by Sigvaldi Kaldalóns here.

Kerid Crater — Joe and Laura on the Golden Circle Tour

Happy Summer

July 11, 2022July 22, 2022Leave a comment

Summertime! I hope you are enjoying activities, places, and people that bring you joy. The studio is buzzing with summer lessons, and preparations are underway for upcoming August author events. I’ve have launched a series of short music videos that go hand in hand with my book, Music in the Westward Expansion: Songs of Heart and Place on the American Frontier, and I’ve created dedicated page on my website just for the book. I encourage you to visit the book page for new updates-including music clips and videos! I hope to connect with you soon either online, at an author event, or around the neighborhood!

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Call of the Canyon

April 26, 20228 Comments

Joe and I recently traveled to Sedona, Arizona for a rejuvenating spring break filled with stunning desert hikes. West Fork Trail, a.k.a “The Call of the Canyon,” just a few miles north of Sedona, is a popular hike that meanders back and forth across a rippling creek and through a canyon maze of spectacular striated rock ledges, peaks, and walls. We also took in the Grand Canyon-the South Rim. I was delighted with the hiking trail that runs parallel to the canyon for several miles! The day was glorious, the canyon, well, grand!

I learned that among the many early Westerns filmed in Sedona, was a 1923 movie called The Call of the Canyon. In 1924, The Pullman Herald urged, “Better answer The Call of the Canyon and come along to the Western thrill-land. Where a son of toil teaches a daughter of jazz the a-b-c of living and loving.” Sign me up, I need to watch this old movie ASAP!

Another movie, Rhythm on the Range, made in 1940, features the theme song, “The Call of the Canyon.” Here is Frank Sinatra’s recording: New York a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSR5U5R7Ci4

The Monday after I arrived home, McFarland Publishers emailed with my page proofs for Music in the Westward Expansion: Songs of Heart and Place on the American Frontier, which means that I am currently working on the final task- creating the index! Hurray! Seeing the pdf of the book as it will print, complete with the images and sheet music (10 lead sheets in the back), is thrilling! The book will be published very soon-within the next couple of months! You can pre-order your copy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, McFarland, or wherever you buy books.

To stay in the loop, subscribe to my blog here!

VICTORIAN RADICALS

June 24, 2019June 24, 20193 Comments

Musica (Melody) by Kate Elizabeth Bunce

A “June Gloom” day in Seattle made for the perfect opportunity to visit the VICTORIAN RADICALS exhibit at Seattle Art Museum (SAM).

The attention to detail in the array of colorful paintings, tapestries, clothing, jewelry, and pottery transported me into a romantic world of gardens, gods, goddesses, secret liaisons, betrayals, and courtly love! My hands down favorite painting was Musica, by Kate Elizabeth Bunce. The lovely young musician with her ornate lute, sumptuous dress, and intricate jewelry, posed in front of a blooming floral arrangement, swept me away.

At one point I was asked to kindly step back from a display case (got to close). The case held a book which was open to a poem entitled, Edward Gray. I was mesmerized by the beautiful poem written by an English poet, Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892). I thought to myself, someone must have set this poem to music. When I got home, I did a little digging online and found a piece of sheet music written by Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. As it turns out, Edward Sullivan set Edward Gray to music. Sullivan’s setting is operatic, covers multiple octaves, and is far too complicated for the purposes of laying down a quick track for my blog…….. so I modified the melody and accompanied myself on my Taylor guitar as I don’t have a lute lying around the studio, I do however, have plenty of floral dresses.

Here’s my version of Edward Gray:

Here are some more beautiful paintings from the exhibit!

Sigismonda (or Gismonda), 1897 by Joseph Edward Southall

I didn’t get the name of the artist for this one… the narrative of the painting is about a young man who died in battle, the women are handing over some of his personal belongings to his broken-hearted lover!

Couldn’t we all use more flowers, more color, more art, more music, more beauty, more love?

Cafe Flora, Seattle

Piano Arts in Netarts

September 28, 2018September 29, 20181 Comment

The beautiful Oregon Coast

One of the beautiful pianos – a Yamaha courtesy of Classic Pianos, Portland

The Surf Inn

The fire hall

Flag made of fire hoses

Fishing Buoys

I recently returned from Netarts on the Oregon Coast for Piano Arts in Netarts, Where Music Meets the Sea, a workshop orchestrated by Dr. Jill Timmons, of Arts Mentor.

I joined about forty other pianists from Oregon, Washington, and California for a weekend of continuing education, beautiful music, friendship, renewal, and stunning scenery.

All events took place in the fire hall of Netarts, a lovely community style meeting space. We enjoyed a concert size Bösendorfer and a concert size Yamaha for the concerts and classes, courtesy of Classic Pianos of Portland.

The weekend kicked off with a Friday evening viola/piano concert in the fire hall featuring Jill Timmons and Laura Klugherz . This fabulous duo played works from the likes of Bréval, Grignon, Ponce, Schubert, Bernstein, and Gershwin, to name a few. Community members and workshops participants filled the concert space.

The following day began gently with body work, specifically, Feldenkrais, led by Laura Klugherz. We then jumped into a full schedule of master classes. The classes highlighted nine different performers including soloists, a four hand duo (at one piano) and two duos playing two pianos.

For those scratching their head about the meaning of a master class, here’s a short explanation. A master class includes a small group of performers, in our case, all professional musicians and a master teacher. Each performer plays a prepared work, and then, the master teacher digs into work and the performance. She addresses body position, articulations, tempo, pedaling, dynamics, expression, phrasing, music history, performance anxiety, and everything in between! It’s like a lesson, but the lesson unfolds in front of forty people.

As a master class performer, I can tell you, the experience is exhilarating, humbling, educational, scary, and a joyful, all at the same time. For our series of master classes, the repertoire ranged from the Baroque period to a work from the late 20th Century. Each performer and duo managed to add unique pieces and pianistic challenges to the mix. The repertoire included works from Hilary Tann, Albénez, Chopin, Charles Wakefield Cadman (my contribution), Debussy, and Lutoslawaski.

The following day started with body work, this time, a yoga class led again by Laura. The morning workshop addressed practicing effectively, the afternoon presentation taught us about the inner workings of the piano. We wrapped up the weekend with a community concert presented by the master class performers.

Of course, in between sessions, we socialized, shared some fantastic meals, visited some local watering holes, and walked around the charming town of Netarts.

Upon reflecting on the weekend and my dedication to continuing education until my very last day on this beautiful earth, I think of the following quote by Seymour Bernstein. “Music speaks concordantly to a troubled world, dispelling loneliness and discontent, it’s voice discovering in it those deep recesses of thought and feeling where truth implants itself. Music offers no quarter for compromise, no excuses, no subterfuge, no shoddy workmanship.”

Dr. Jill Timmons, director of the festival, my mentor and friend, teaches us to practice with full availability of self and also teaches us to give up the idea of perfection in performing. Performing, after all, is a temporal experience. She reminds us, “Perfection only exists in our imagination. We are perfectly imperfect!”

Rancho La Puerta 2018

May 21, 2018May 22, 2018Leave a comment

I just returned from a week at the health and fitness spa, Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico. This was my eighth visit to the Ranch as a visiting musical artist. The motto of the Ranch is ¡Siempre Mejor! (always better). My first visit was life changing, and each visit provides inspiration to lead my best and healthiest life possible! Here are my top 10 experiences from the magical week, in no particular order.

Wandering around the brick paths that snake through the entire property while taking in the colorful gardens!
Attending two concerts from Grammy Award winning classical guitarist, Jason Vieaux! I will never forget his magical playing and commentary in the intimate setting of the Oak Tree Pavilion. Here’s a pic of Jason below.

Jason Vieaux

Hanging out with my handsome husband who worked at the Ranch for thirty-one years before retiring to live in Seattle. I literally took the Ranch home over six years ago, when Joe came to live with me and my daughter, Ruby. Now he visits the Ranch as my guest and gets to relax and do whatever he wants!

Seeing old friends and making new ones! Below, the lovely Manuela, Concierge Extraordinaire!

A wonderful hands on cooking class with master vegan chef and cookbook author, Jill Nussinow, the Veggie Queen! Joe, Ruby, and I been following a plant based diet for over two years now, never felt better.

Performing an evening solo piano program, Across the Borders, in the Oak Tree Pavilion! I also led two sing along classes in the same space, terrific fun.

Swimming Workouts in the beautiful fitness pool.
Yoga!

Watching a barn owl swoop into a tree at sunset like a winged white ghost from another world. Joe and I experienced this together. We also saw a family of 7 skunks the same night- luckily, they kept the family party moving! click here for some magnificent bird photos

Returning Home. Good to go away and oh so happy to return home to the yellow house. There’s no place like home.

Laura Dean

Musical Artist, Teacher, Author

Tag: Photography