Dee, the ‘shy one' of Finnish heritage…mother and ‘nurse' to three grown and growing children, summer ‘soccer-mom' to her own and others, kindergarten specialist guiding Ojibwe Indian students in the ways of learning, humorist, booming bassist with percussion and haunting voice…dreams of the dancing ballerina inside her…imagining the musical experience of the dance and the song and the wit that is Ireland.		 Dee Furfaro was actively involved in musical productions throughout her middle and high school years, participated in choir as a soloist and madrigal singer, and also played percussion in the Roseau, MN high school band and small instrumental group ensembles. Her participation continued at Bemidji State University where she was a member of the concert choir and select chamber singers, students' operas and musical productions (including a children's opera), the Eurospring educational exchange program, and an international concert performance in Israel as part of an Europa Cantat festival. Dee obtained her BS degree in music and elementary education from Bemidji State University in 1981.

As a result of her involvement with the women's celtic musical group, Caleigh, Dee has expanded her vocal music repertoire to include the playing of the Irish goat-skin drum - the bodhran; congas/bongos, spoons, and miscellaneous percussion instruments; and, the cross-over bass. Along with an extensive history of professional and volunteer work in the area of early childhood education, she has a diverse background in math, science, reading, and music which she brings to her daily kindergarten teaching of Ojibwe students on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Known for her creative and energetic teaching styles, she was a 1999-2000 participant and coordinator of a Perpich Center for Arts Education "Theater in the Classroom" grant at the Red Lake school. She is a member of the MN Music Education Association.

First and foremost a homemaker and mother of three children, she has devoted many years to the development and perfection of her ‘domestic engineering' degree also. She has a long history of volunteer tutoring in local schools during her children's early years. Summers now find her travelling with her two teenage children as a ‘soccer mom' and volunteering with the Bemidji Youth Soccer program as a parent representative and past coordinator. When she is not ‘on the road' she can be found at home in Shevlin, MN with her husband Michael and two teenagers experimenting with new recipes, planning the next soccer outing, reading, and finishing her master's degree in education at BSU.
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