M is for...

Two things actually. Mom and Music.


My mom, my sister, and my dad at Waterton Lakes National Park last summer. My Mom is a great, wonderful, fanastic person. She believed in me when I wanted to quit piano, and helped me to see that I should keep taking it. She knew I was struggling at Dryden High School, and neither she nor Dad hesitated in allowing me to go a better school in Winnipeg, even though it meant leaving home at 16.

My Mom likes to knit, sew, and make stained glass. She gave me my first love of music by singing to me as a baby. Despite being absolutely terrified she became one of the organists at our church.

I love you Mom.

Now for music. I love music. It's not something I can even call a passion, so much as a necessity of life. I couldn't live without music anymore than I could live without breathing. I whistle when I walk through the halls at school and work, and I sing while doing the dishes. Anytime I spy an unoccupied piano I sit down and play. The first big purchase Sean and I make once we have a (more) permanent place to live, as promised by him, is a piano for me. My favourite classical composers are Bach, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi, and Rachmaninoff. For more contemporary music I like Rodgers and Hammerstein, Howard Shore, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Williams, and many others. I am addicted to old musicals (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, anyone?) and always sing along. I even hum along to instrumental pieces.

I took voice when I was younger and completed my Grade 4 RCM. I belonged to University of Alberta Mixed Chorus for 3 years in university as a Soprano 1, and when I moved here I took Performance Voice from Tellie Kahara. Although I didn't do the RCM examinations, she believes that with some minor technical work and health improvements I could do my Grade 10 (which I will, and hopefully also complete my ARCT so I could teach).

I took piano starting I believe at age 4 or 5, until I was 17. I did finish my Grade 10 RCM, however I only have up to my Grade 8 certificate due to immense difficulties in writing the written theory components. I love to play piano as much as I love to sing, and as I say I will play any unoccupied piano I find. Someday I hope to own one of these but that will require me to be rich enough to not only afford the piano, but a house big enough to...well...house it. A grand piano this large and rich-sounding needs considerable space in order not to explode people's eardrums, as well as room to hear all the acoustical richness it offers.