Marla’s thought “in sound” as long as she can remember. As a child, it wasn’t unusual to find her working intently at a borrowed piano, ignoring her friends at sleepovers so she could find and play the music she heard in her head. A classical flutist in college, after graduation Marla worked as a drive-time classical music radio announcer and was soon promoted to Music Director, where she managed — and explored —an extensive library of classical, jazz, blues, bluegrass and folk recordings. She earned an MFA in poetry and has taught music to adults, very young children and their families in Marin County. Marla moved to California in 2000 and began writing songs in earnest in 2023.

“Many of the loveliest moments in my life have to do with music,” she says. “Whether I’m playing dulcimer with cousins in Kentucky, singing pop songs with my teenaged daughter, or listening to Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ in Prague, a control room or alone with my headphones at home…music has always been my refuge and delight.”

Today Marla studies singing and guitar with two talented teacher/performers, and her current project, the Marla Beck & Ryan Coe Duo, is great fun while also challenging her to focus on and grow her songwriting, guitar and performance chops.