As an American, I felt like it was a great honor to perform a Czech's work with Czech musicians. That experience is one she wants to share with her students in order to demonstrate the opportunities that may be available for them. Cook says exposing students to music of other cultures is a vital part of their music education. With music, you have to teach the full person. Your playing tells everything about you.
Cooks says discipline and motivation are essential to becoming a successful musician.
She explains that students who really want to make it in the music world keep trying, no matter what comes their way. Cook's persistence has certainly paid off. She earned a master of music degree at Yale University, after which she served as principal cellist of the Sao Paulo State Symphony and taught at New Mexico State University until coming to Penn State in 1991. She has performed solo recitals at New York's Carnegie Hall and, in summer 2000, was the first Penn State faculty member to perform at London's Wigmore Hall. In 1996, she toured for nine weeks as Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency, giving concerts and master classes in Barbados, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Panama, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru.