WHO AM I?

As most people do, I enjoyed listening to music. However, during the last three years of high school from 1996 to 1999, I embarked upon my singing journey via a chamber choir and a vocal-jazz choir. This is when the ‘singing bug’ really got a hold of me. As I was having so much fun singing and doing some solos, I got rewarded during those three fantastic years with two singing awards (one for each choir during different years). 

During my last year in high school, I was the section leader for the sopranos in the chamber choir (I was a first soprano). In addition, I managed to be chosen for the role of Sandy in the musical Grease. While that was an honour (and a big deal for a formerly-bullied teenager), I declined the role. Frank Sinatra sings about having a few regrets in “My Way”… I guess that is one of my few regrets. 

Just before high school ended, I created my first song, “Outspoken Destiny” (lyrics and a melody recorded on a cassette tape… yep, highly antiquated). Interestingly, I met my now-husband during that final year of high school–in choir class, no less. Oh, did I mention I never learned to play an instrument? Well, I didn’t, but I was repeatedly told over the years that I possess ‘perfect pitch.’ I take that as a good thing.

In 2002, I graduated with a diploma in Music Business Administration because I had a lofty goal of managing my own singing career. Unfortunately, my singing career was discouraged and never really began. Since I didn’t use my music business knowledge in a practical way, I lost it to time. Nevertheless, that pesky ‘singing bug’ lay dormant inside of me.

Around 2006 in university, my husband and I joined a choir for one semester in which we sang Brahms’ Requiem with the local symphony orchestra, which was mildly entertaining but lacked passion and fun. So then, I took to jamming with some guys in a hippie-inspired house instead. They played and I sang. I found singing fun again, but I was doing an Environmental Studies degree, which took up the majority of my time.

Now, fast forward to 2013. Once again, I took an interest in singing and songwriting. While working at a health food store when things were slow and there wasn’t much to do, I began writing song ideas or full songs. However, I never imagined how much I would love to create songs with typed or hand-written lyrics, and melodies recorded on everything from mini-recorders to mobile phones and, eventually, my laptop.

During 2015, my leap into sporadic songwriting took me on many musical adventures: I took a few voice lessons, I performed a few times at a coffee shop/bookstore, I had jam sessions with a specific group of people almost every Friday night during that summer, and I jammed, wrote songs collaboratively and performed an original song “Fallen Victim” with a talented musician

In the last few years, I’ve been writing songs on and off. Singing and I have an interesting relationship with one another. We’re like old friends who haven’t always stayed in touch, but, when we do, it’s usually inspired and quite magical. At this point in my life, I’m ready for this deep and vital relationship to flourish in new and unexpected ways. 

There are just some things in this life that we are meant to do… If we don’t do them, they just keep calling to us… I guess that’s the difference between a career and a ‘calling’–with a career or job, we must use persistence, but, with a calling, it persists no matter what we do or don’t do.