Music, in general, has been a source of happiness, therapy, and a constant thread throughout my life. I have known from a very young age that I wanted my career to be related to music since I started playing the piano and dancing at age 4. Over the years, I added more instruments and more styles of dance to my repertoire, and skills and unique experiences have cemented that desire. However, initially, I wasn't sure exactly what field I wanted to pursue within music, I enjoy teaching, performing, and composing (practicing is not my favorite).
When I started at daycare at one year old, my daycare taker told my Mom I would be a piano player! She had a piano at her home, and in the 25 years she ran a daycare, I was the only child who she ever let touch the keys because I was so gentle. Later when I was four, her daughter broke her collar bone and I was able to take her daughter's place in our local piano teacher's schedule. That is where everything started! That was the year I started piano and ballet, both I have been practicing ever since. I took my first Royal Conservatory of Music in June 2012 and took the Grade 10 RCM exam in June of 2021. At age 11, my Mom signed me up for some Ukulele group lessons locally, and I was introduced to the Langley Ukulele Association. Elizabeth Zielke was my first instructor there, she inspired me to continue with the ukulele and she is still an inspiration to this day. This very unique organization has honors groups, which perform and travel but also promote leadership and enrich lives through mu sic. I joined the entry-level group and quickly worked my way up to the Senior Ensemble that travels throughout Canada and the United States; we played a yearly three-year residence at the Sheraton Waikiki in Hawaii, playing hundreds of concerts each year in community events, senior centers, and other venues. In 2020 we visited NAMM in Anaheim and opened for Bobby McFerrin, played The Royal Halifax Tattoo, and The 25th Anniversary of The Stratford Music Festival, just to name a few. During this time, I was a featured soloist during our performances, including a featured instrumentalist in Sir Duke on a studio-produced Album, One Love One Heart, by the LUA. I was also selected to study under Peter Luongo in the LUA Teacher Training Program, where I got to study and teach both Ukulele and vocals to youth and adults. These teachings and experiences were invaluable, and I still use these skills to this day.
Over the years, I have gotten to study with some amazing teachers on a variety of instruments. At age 11, I was introduced to the Double French Horn in the school band when my band teacher encouraged me to select a more difficult instrument than the flute that I started on. I took the French Horn further than just school band. I got to study with Dean Scott, a local Brass Specialist, and play in the Surrey Youth Orchestra under Joel Stobbe, and earned a Royal Conservatory of Music Gold Medal in 2019. I took up the Double Bass to accompany ukulele ensembles and got to study with Tim Stacey. I played the double bass in my High School's Jazz Band, as well as classically in the Surrey Youth Orchestra's Chamber Group, and got to jam with some exceptionally experienced musicians many years my senior at Porter's Cafe in Langley. Taking up the guitar was a natural progression after studying the Ukulele for years and studying with Vincent Rahn at Walnut Grove Senior Secondary. I quickly worked into a Teacher's Aide position in Guitar Level 2 and also got to be a student teacher in the School District 36 Guitar Summer School that Summer.
Throughout my musical experience, I also studied Ballet with Elizabeth Lisa at Azesta Ballet under the Royal Academy of Dance Ballet, completing up to Grade 8 Ballet with Merit and Intermediate Vocational Ballet, as well as competitively danced ballet, Hip Hop, and recreationally danced modern and contemporary styles. Dancing and music are so intertwined that one enhanced the other. One of the most memorable parts of ballet was the exams; we danced along to live piano music. That was such a unique and fulfilling experience. After the first few years of ballet exams, I purchased the Ballet Exam music piano books and worked on that same music that I had been dancing to for years!
Covid 19 really impacted my final years of High School, preventing so many musical and life experiences that could have happened but didn't. During that time, I chose Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario for my post secondary journey. Wilfrid Laurier University has the only Community Music program in Canada and a rich Music Therapy history. I picked up all my instruments and moved from Langley, British Columbia, to Waterloo, Ontario. The music students were some of the very few students that got to be on campus my first year, as our Ensemble classes got to be in person while all theory classes were online. It wasn't until the second year that I knew how many students attended WLU.
I no longer practice dance, but I definitely miss it. In April 2023, I got to visit NAMM again, running into Peter Luongo again, as well as participating in a variety of very memorable educational seminars. This summer, I joined the staff at Bandology full time as a Camp & Workshop Coordinator and I am having the best time not also teaching but coordinating Music Camps and Workshops in Southern Ontario. I have been able to teach bucket drumming, boomwhackers and ukulele to many different groups!
I am looking forward to continuing teaching and performing in and around the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
