Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and pursue a career in music?
My musical beginnings were not as idealistic as I would expect to hear from many others, but they did have an impact.
When I was 6, my family moved to a small house in Minnesota. The previous owners left a piano in the basement since they did not want to move it. This piano we inherited was over 100 years old and after tuning, we discovered it held tinker toys, playing cards, and candy wrappers. It was not loved before, but it became mine. I think because of that, I always see a piano as the holder of stories. I immediately personify it and believe the piano should be cared for so it can teach others. I love playing unfamiliar pianos (especially late 19th and early 20th century Steinways) to see what the piano will teach me.
I majored in piano performance as an undergraduate at the Eastman School of Music. As a student, my primary motivators were other musicians—faculty and graduate students. I played a great deal of chamber music and I was profoundly inspired by the instrumental and vocal professors especially violinist, William Preucil and mezzo-sopranos Jan DeGaetani and Marcia Baldwin. My favorite experiences were playing chamber music, premiering contemporary works, performing with the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble (I performed George Perle’s Concertino for Piano Winds, and Timpani with them among other pieces), and performing with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. I am thankful for the doctoral conducting students who taught me how to perform in an ensemble. Pianists are not often granted those opportunities.
I don’t think I still thought of music as a career, however, until after I graduated. I questioned if I should continue studies. I didn’t seem to follow the same path as other pianists and I believed you could learn from every musical experience (solo, chamber, ensemble, playing for dance classes, performing as a church musician) so I was not focusing on a particular career and I was not interested in participating in competitions. I just had the desire to learn. I desperately wanted to be surrounded by many other musicians who could teach me what they knew, whether it was the music of Mahler, Art Tatum or Led Zeppelin.
I was one week from graduation when I would say I received the inspirational talk. Rebecca Penneys, who was not my piano teacher at the time, called me in to her studio. She heard from one of her students that I had significant fears/doubts about pursuing music as a career. I had never had a conversation with her before that, but her words made the difference. I still find her insights from that conversation to be invaluable.
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