Kirsten’s story: music for life
It was at the end of high school that Kirsten Jones quit playing piano. She had enjoyed her lessons as child, and even obtained Royal Conservatory Grade 8 before giving it up. “I just wanted to party,” she says. “I didn’t even think about piano again until I was 29.”
It was then that a personal tragedy led Kirsten to rekindle her passion for music, and start a new life chapter in the process.
As a kid, Kirsten was especially fond of her piano teacher, a kind and eccentric young woman known for big jewellery, heavy makeup, and long fingernails. “She just ‘clack-clack-clacked’ along on the keys!” remembers Kirsten. “But she played unbelievable stuff. She let me see that you could still play classical piano and be a bit of a rebel.”
In 2013, Kirsten learned that her piano teacher had been murdered in her hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. After recovering from the initial shock, Kirsten says the news prompted her to buy a digital piano and take up playing again, as a tribute.
“I fell right back in love with it,” she says. Over the next few years, Kirsten worked through all her old piano books. She then decided to quit her job as a copywriter and pursue music full-time at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ (ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½).
“I really just applied here because it was close,” she says. “But then I came in for an info session and I loved the people.” When it came to the classical music industry, Kirsten says she always felt like an outsider, but not at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½. “It felt more inclusive than other music programs.”
Now finished her first year of ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½’s two-year music diploma program, Kirsten looks back at a rewarding but also very demanding time. “It’s a really intense program,” she says. “You’re taught and critiqued by some of the top musicians in the country. I practiced more than I ever had in my life, and learned a lot about the importance of posture, technique, and moderation."
Thanks to her experiences at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, Kirsten has also discovered some new career paths that don’t necessarily lead to the classical music stage.
Kirsten already works with at-risk youth in her neighbourhood, and has seen first-hand the benefits of music therapy. “Sometimes they don’t feel like talking. Instead, you just bang on a drum or write a song. You use rhythm and melody to fill the void.”
With one year left in her diploma program, and now in her mid-thirties, Kirsten is eager to see what the next few years will bring.
“I’m starting a new story,” she says. “I may feel old. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but I don’t want to look back and think, ‘I wasn’t old! Why didn’t I just do it?’”
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