Introduction

[chozart]

You forgot to mention you look like Brendel

 

haha
oh how could I ever forget 

Well, I've been lurking around reading posts for a while, before joining a week or so ago.

I'm 25 and I'm from Sydney, Australia, and I've been playing since I was four or five.  I started coz my cousins played and as a baby, as soon as I could climb onto the piano stool, I'd go and make as much noise as possible, so my parents decided to let me have lessons in an attempt to make the noise not so awful.

I quit piano two years ago, for various reasons, and went to do my Masters of Statistics, but I've started playing again and loving it.  I think having time away really made it clear to me that I love the piano.  Which is why I really admire people who start learning as adults, or return after many years away.  My uncle started learning after he retired from work!

welcome galonia! ^_^

I understand that you had your reasons for having quit, but it's good to see you're back at the piano!

[ted]

I have been posting here for quite a long time but did not participate in the off-topic sections.

I am fifty-seven, married, with one grown son, and live in Auckland, New Zealand. I earn my living as an IT manager/programmer but piano music, particularly improvisation and composition, dominate much of my waking thought. I could have been a professional musician but, against the advice of several people, I decided to keep my creative activities completely free from obligation. In retrospect, this decision has proved wise.

Aside from contributions to one or two piano forums and correspondences with one or two overseas composers I am a complete loner, move in no musical circles, know no musicians in any depth, and have not attended a concert since 1967. In fact, I seriously doubt that I am a musician at all in any conventional sense of the word. Nonetheless I continue to add to my pile of compositions and the huge heap of recorded improvisations I began when I was in my twenties.

My music has never given me a bad moment. 

[shotkong64x]

hi

I just started playin this summer, and i think that it is the best thing ever.  I want to get VERY good, and im willing to work.  So far ive been practicing 3 hours a night daily on average,  and im learning quick.   I think this forum is GREAT btw.

[musicismylife]

hey hey, guys. I'm Alia, and music is my life. All I have to live for.
I've played for nine years, and looove performing! I'm 14, started when I was five. I live in California.  I just joined here, never been before. Seems nice, though.

[rachlisztchopin]

Hello guys. I have also been posting here for a while so I might as well introduce my self too. I go by Ant. Im 15 and have been playing piano for about 1 year and 3 quarters to be close to exact. My four current favorite (lol) composers have to be Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, and Ravel...and no they aren't all I play or listen too.  I am a happy liberal athiest who strongly dislikes conservative christians (surprise, surprise)! I live in northwestern Arkansas (surprise!). I'm interested in piano (which is the best thing on the Earth we know), computer games, and girls even (Wow!). I am currently learning the Rach 3....lol no thats impossible after as little playing as I have had (thought i plan on learning it in a couple of years). Umm...what else? I am currently learning Bach prelude in fugue no. 1 in the first book of the WTC, Beethoven Waldstein Sonate, Mendelssohn Rondo a Capriccioso, Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess, and the first movement of Grieg Concerto in A minor. I have many favorite pianists. Umm...I went to Interlochen last summer and plan on going again. What else would you guys like to know about me? (probably nothing)

[jon]

Hi, I too have been here for quite a while.I havn't posted that much I just usually sit back and gain alot of knowledge.Well just a few things about me,I'm a 16 year old junior that lives in south texas,like 10 minutes from mexico,i'm a conservative Christian   and I love to play the piano.Piano is not all my life,I like to play basketball alot and hang out with friends just like a normal teenager.I have been playing the piano for around 9 years now but my theory and sight reading is absolutely terrible.My favorite composers are almost exactly like rachlisztchopin's,my favorite is Chopin followed by liszt,rachmaninoff,beethoven.Some things I have played in the past are 1st movement of appassionata,heroic polonaise,fantasie-impromtue,scherzo in b flat minor, and just recently the 8th transcendental etude by liszt.This piano forum has been great with all the experience and knowledge here.

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

Hello everyone,

My name is Bernhard, I am a piano teacher in the UK. I also play (and teach) the recorder. My age… I cannot remember it, it keeps changing every year!
I discovered this forum about three weeks ago , and have been slowly reading through the mountain of material available. Amazing! In fact I have just found this particular thread, so I am introducing myself.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Wow.... It is amazing how fast the years go.......

Anyway, my name is Ludwig Van Rachabji. I have ancestors from Germany, Russia, Britain, Iran, and Spain. I am a pianist/composer/teacher. I have played the piano for 13 years. My dream is to have people talking about me (who don't know me) on piano forums Internet-wide.

I discovered this forum a long time ago, but didn't register at that time. However, now that I have been registered for quite a while, I hope to be a help as often as I can, as well as recieve help and knowledge from you fine people.

Soon, I will probably share some of my compositions with all of you.

[Floristan]

Hi!

My name is Aaron, I'm 56 years old, and live in San Francisco where I work as a market research executive.

I've been playing since I was 7, got my first adult teacher when I was 16, achieved an advanced level of play, but then let serious study lapse for a long time.  I've always owned a piano and was a sight-reading maniac for about 20 years, reading through all the piano literature (not playing well, just reading to become familiar and gain a deeper understanding and stay in touch with the instrument).

I was a piano technician for several years, in a failed attempt to stay somehow connected to music...failed because it was just too difficult earning a good living as a technician, and I was living in NYC at the time where the competition for top technician jobs was fierce.  So I became a market research executive.  Go figure.  As my Master's degree is in English and comparative literature, it doesn't make a lot of obvious sense, but I needed a job, I've always had a head for logic and math, and market research has given me a lucrative if mostly unfulfilling career.

During my brief stint as a piano technician, I bought a 170cm Schiedmayer grand built about 1913.  Schiedmayer Pianofortefabrik was among the premier piano makers in Germany at the time, and it's a superb instrument.  But it's showing its age, so I'm currently having it rebuilt.  I considered buying a new instrument, but I don't really have the $40K-$60K I need for my dream piano, I don't like the Japanese pianos, and there are no Estonia dealers in the Bay Area...the only other mid-range piano I might consider.  Plus I decided I wanted to preserve the unique sound of this high-end German instrument for another 50 years, since they've all but disappeared from the planet!

Returning to serious piano study after so many years away marks the end of my midlife crisis...the culmination of much searching for personal authenticity.  I took many strange paths before coming full circle, back to my earliest passion, music.

Through a series of fortunate coincidences, I found a teacher, a Julliard graduate from 1958 who was taught by Egon Petri.  He is helping me completely relearn technique (I never learned it right in the first place), so progress is slow, and repertory building isn't my primary goal at the moment.  I'm passionately committed to playing, and it's just so wonderful, after all these years, to reconnect to this passion that runs so deeply in me and is so fulfilling to me.

I found this forum through the Piano World forum, and I have learned a great deal from many of you.  Most of all I have found here continual reinforcement for the technique my teacher is teaching me, and most of the posts about technique echo what I'm learning in my lessons.  I also just enjoy reading what other people have to say, what they are doing, what they are working on, the techincal challenges they face and how they deal with them, etc.

I chose Floristan as my screen name because I had just heard my teacher play Schumann's "Davidsbundler Tanze" in recital, and Floristan was on my mind when I joined up!  I'm probably more of a Eusebius, but I think you already have one of them, and I have always aspired to be more of a Floristan anyway!

So, a long-winded, overdue hello!

[jlh]

I guess I never really introduced myself.  My name is Josh.  I'm a 23 year-old university student in the USA majoring in piano performance.  My private teachers have included Jane Allen, Dr. Jack Winerock (my current teacher) and Dr. Richard Cass and chamber music with Dr. Robert Koenig.  I'm also a piano teacher and professional vocalist.  I enjoy nice long walks by the sea at night and... wait, wrong place...   

Seriously, I hope I can help to some degree here when time allows.  Time for sleep now, though (it's 1:30am here).

[caro]

it´s nice 2 meet u guys.I hope we´ll have some fun together. I´m not from US. I´m finishing master´s in Amsterdam but i´m spanish. From Barcelona,actually Catalonia!!!hehhehe.
See u around!!!
ah,´m 25 and very charming!!
Caro

[alice oliver]

hi, i'm new to pianoforum.net, and happy to have found this place. 

i began piano lessons when i was about 24 years old, studied for about 5 years, and quit when the teacher i was studying with at a conservatory (i was an adult, nondegree student), said he couldn't teach me unless i quit doing everything except play the piano.

since i was (i figured) never going to be concert artist material, and since i had to earn a living, i quit.

fourteen or so years passed, and a young friend who was studying music (age eight) asked me to play something for him on the piano.  neither of us had one, so we snuck into the piano practice rooms of the local university's music school.  my hands touched the keys, and.... the rest is history.

the next day i called the head of the keyboard department and asked for a referral to a good teacher.  she interviewed me, had me play for her, and sent me to a very fine teacher who specializes in adult students.  i've been with her for about three or four years now.

i'd describe myself as an advanced intermediate.  i had a lot of work to do to go back to basics and unlearn bad habits.  i never had been properly taught how to read or to count, as i played so well by ear teachers were either deceived or didn't know how to get me to stop.  so, it has been a gratifying struggle.

one of the advantages, i find of returning to the piano at midlife is that you are so much more patient and forgiving of yourself.  and i have the discipline to be very focused on the particulars of practice, and the curiousity to be intrigued by the whole learning process.  it has really expanded my universe.

it's great to see that there are so many serious musicians here, and a very witty group at that.  i hope to learn a lot from rubbing elbows with all of you!

[Jack Appleseed]

Alice,

nice to meet you again (in another post).  I played a Farfia when I was in high school---as in Light My Fire and Midnight Hour---and some guitar since.

I live with a Seiler professional player wife and son.

ja

[chickering9]

I joined the forum two days ago and would like to introduce myself with my first post. I'm 47 and semi-retired. My name is Rick, and just Rick.  Not short for anything at all.

After leaving my job of 22 years 2-1/2 years ago, I bought myself a pristine 9-foot Chickering concert grand ca. 1895 and began to finally seriously work at piano on a daily basis.  I had bought my first piano about 20 years earlier and spent a bit more than a year then working on it at least two hours daily, but a demanding job with long hours soon precluded continuing that effort.  So now I have picked up where I had left off, but with a much better piano (which certainly helps).  Now I'm practicing an average of 3 hours per day, with some days a bit more and enjoying the learning process. 

My repertoire is fairly limited, but growing.  My only truly polished pieces are Saties gnossienes and gymopoedies, LVB's Op 27,2, DeBussy's "Suite Bergmanesque", and Lecuona's "Malaguena".  I'm very nearly to a point of polish on DeBussy's "Reverie" and Gottschalks "Souvenir de la Havane" and a few favorite standards.  I'm now sight-playing a fair amount of other classical pieces (mostly Chopin's preludes), a lot of other old standards, and just lately a fair bit of jazz accurately.  Sight reading has finally become second nature and is my biggest personal milestone accomplishment over the 30 months of playing since I resumed, but I've begun to improvise a good bit and compose a little.  I have started my piano adventure (solely) for personal pleasure, quite backwards, starting first many years ago with the Lecuona.  And it is only lately that I have the technique and confidence to begin to do justice to it on a good day when arthritic old hands cooperate.  But even while tackling such tough pieces first, I have learned a lot and everything new is getting easier and easier now.  And my neighbors so far have only compliments and no complaints.

In addition to teaching myself to play, I've spent the last two years studying and doing my own tuning and regulation.  The same day I bought the Chickering, I bought another small grand which I restrung and tuned and regulated.  Between it and two uprights, I had the opportunity to tune several of the historical temperaments, along with equal temperament.  I've since hung a new set of Ronsen Wurzenfelt hammers and new shanks on the Chickering and I'm enormously pleased with both them and with my work.  I enjoy the technical work enough that I sometimes consider studying it formally and perhaps making that my last career, since I'm certainly a bit too old to make playing for a living my goal.

As I said, I'm semi-retired.  In the time that I do work, I work from home writing, editing and illustrating technical journal and textbook articles for chemical engineering journals and maintaining a couple of industry websites, and a bit of magazine advertising design.  My other interests include film. photography, oil painting, mountain climbing (when I was younger), astronomy, and sportscars (mostly Jaguar).

I have participated in a number of internet forums over the years, most recently at Piano World.  I found this place through an internet search and browsed some of your threads very briefly before signing up.  I see several individuals I know from other forums who have been here a while and others like myself who are just now joining.  I am pleased to have found a moderated forum with piano as the common denominator of interest.  It may take me several weeks to get fairly acquainted with the venue here and learn who is who and catch up on old posts.  But I look forward to a place I've seen already characterized by one poster as a "more serious place" for piano study.  Piano is truly the only thing I take seriously these days.  But even for that, my goal is to truly just enjoy it.

[Torvald]

Hallo my name is Torvald. I am studying piano at university in Norway and find this forum from google. I do not write English well - I was asleep in English class too many times. Today I work on Brahms and Haydn but my instruktor give me too much easy works. Maybe I am not really too good pianist. 

[pianodoc]

Hi all-

I just joined this forum.  I've been tuning pianos for about 25 years - go ahead and ask if you'd like any information about tuning, or temperaments, or any other piano service questions.  I probably won't have a lot of time to spend on this board, but I'll try to check back when I can.  I'm not much of a pianist, but with a degree in bassoon performance, I know how to get SOME music from these recalcitrant fingers.

[chopin_girl]

Hi everyone, my name is Maida (that's  pronounced Mah-ee-da), I'm from Bosnia-Herzegowina, 15 years old, and I've been playing the piano for.... 9 years. I go to a music high school, I like playing chamber music, my favourite composer is (obviously) Frederic Francois Chopin, and right now I'm preparing for a competition or two so keep your fingers crossed!

[ehpianist]

Hiya,

Just arrived here thanks to suggestions from fellow members of another unnamed forum.  My name's Elena Hammel, I'm 31, and am part of the Duo Hammel - Sanchez with Spanish pianist Laura Sanchez.  I am originally from Puerto Rico though I have studied at New England Conservatory in Boston, Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and currently divide my time between Madrid, New York, London and will soon have my home base in St. John's Newfoundland (long story for that one).

I look forward to making you guys my new homepage!

Elena
https://www.pianofourhands.com

[Jack Appleseed]

Elena, welcome welcome welcome.  Your reputation preceeds you.  You will be a valuable addition to this space.

ja

[Winters]

Sorry
I totally forgot that I will be without internet access for about 6 months starting in January so introducing myself to a place where I will not be viewing (except if I can sneak on at a friend's house or at the library) seems kind of pointless to me.  If a mod could trash this post that would be better but if not, oh well.
I will probably be back in 6 months time.

[ehpianist]

Elena, welcome welcome welcome.  Your reputation preceeds you.

Uh-oh, should I be worried?

Elena
https://www.pianofourhands.com

[Ed Thomas]

Elena, of course you should be worried.  I'm not sure about what, but you should be worried.  Worry is the fuel of happy homes and good communities everywhere.  To the question: "Why Worry?"  I say: "Why NOT worry."          

Er... ehem... sorry.  Now I'm worried I offended... so now I'm happy, of course.

Really I'm just writing to ask if your web site is going to update to show actual upcoming performances instead of ones already complete.

[Ed Thomas]

Addendum:

Elena, that is a wonderful website.  I like the samples a lot, and am still savoring them as I type this.  The pictures are great fun... I like the Canary Island shot, but REALLY love the "Duo performing in the Mozart Hall at the Palacio de Congresos of Zaragoza, Spain. March 2nd, 2003."  Looks like about 40 acres of piano harnessed for wonderful music.  Thanks for sharing this stuff with us.

[ehpianist]

Thanks Ed!

Yes the website needs updating, I know I know 

Will get around to it when I am done doing the graphics for our new CD and after we have figured out what repertoire to learn for the coming year as we have several different concerts which will require a number of different types of music.

I will let you know!

Thanks for taking the time to look at the site and listen to the clips (I designed it myself though a fellow pianist put it into code).  Eventually there will be a mirror site in Spanish as well.

Want to buy a CD?  Actually, wait a bit until the new one comes out. Fun pieces.

Elena
https://www.pianofourhands.com

[chromatickler]

i happen to be legendary, nuff said

 

[Cindysphinx]

Hi, all,

I'm Cindy, and I also goof off at another piano forum.  But heck, I've heard good things about you all, so I'll stick my head in.

I won't bore you with lots of details.  I'm "Of A Certain Age."  I'm married.  I have three kids.  I'm in the general vicinity of Washington, D.C.  I've taken piano lessons for 5.5 years now, having started as an adult.  I'm having a blast, and I rewarded myself with an Estonia 190 last year.

Eh.  That's enough about me.  I'll probably lurk a lot, and I'll try not to break anything.

[Shellb]

Hi from out west.  Longtime lurker somewhere else.  I'm older than dirt as of next week, unfortunately.  I am equally fond of football and my piano. 
Shellb--who adores Cindysphinx

[Cindysphinx]

Hi, Shellb,

Thanks!  If you're older than dirt, then I'm a fossil!  Good to see you here . . .

Cindy, who likes the emoticons here

 

[Jeffrey]

I am 37.  Took up piano as an adult beginner about 8 months ago.  I live in New York City, and work in finance.  Go is my other main hobby.  I also have a 3 week old baby boy.

[Jack Appleseed]

I am 37.  Took up piano as an adult beginner about 8 months ago.  I live in New York City, and work in finance.  Go is my other main hobby.  I also have a 3 week old baby boy.

Welcome Jeffery.  Hope you find some peace here.  Anyway, glad to welcome you.

ja

[annabell]

hi - I am apple from the other side. 

I play the piano any chance I get and accompany an ensemble at a church. This is really wierd... this other piano forum.      I think I might be related to Jack Appleseed.

peace and love

[Egon von Sprocket]

Hello.

My name's Egon von Sprocket.  I have a wife Toodles and two daughters Anuska (11) and Baby Oona (.  I live in NYC in a very tall building.  I play a Steinway L.  My interest are Lizzie Siddel's poetry and Bauhaus art prints.

I hunt.

[jazzyd]

Hello!

My name is David. I'm from England, I'm 25, and I've been playing the piano for about 17 years (though the evidence would suggest otherwise).

I look forward to becoming some part of this community, however innocuous or inefficacious. 


David

[anda]

hi,

i'm anda, i am pianist and piano teacher.

[Jack Appleseed]

My favorite sister!

ja

hi - I am apple from the other side. 

I play the piano any chance I get and accompany an ensemble at a church. This is really wierd... this other piano forum.      I think I might be related to Jack Appleseed.

peace and love

[VancouverPiano]

 ;DHiya!
I should introduce myself as well. 

I am 28 yrs old. I live in Vancouver BC. Been playing since I was 4.
(Jesus, it HAS been that long)
My job involves being surrounded by music of all kinds all day long!
I am a heavily Jazz/Rock influenced player now! Used to do tons of more classically based music until I found out that jamming simple 1 - 4 - 5 cover tunes was an entertaining way to spend weekends while making some money on the side doing it!
So my classical technique has suffered greatly! (I do intend to devote some time to rectifying this issue in my life!)
I am just over from another well known Piano Forum. Looking for some more piano type knowledge as it helps me very much to perform at my job!
I won't be too vocal around here. .
Only because I hate typing
But I love to read so.....
Good to meet you guys!
(Fellow PW forumites may recognize the screen name ProPianoGuyBC)
I went with VancouverPiano over here....I dunno why!
Anyways see you all around.......Oh yeah have a Very Happy Holidays and Great New Years!

[jgoo]

Hello. My name's Chris. I'm 19 years old, a life long Seattle resident, and I've been playing the piano self taught for about 6 years now. Even though I've been recently teaching myself to play Liebstraume No.3 by Liszt, I'm not doing a very good job at it. So no, I'm not a really good pianist, but on the other hand, I'm not a very bad one either. (My friends say I'm really good, but they don't play or listen to that kind of music anyway, so they don't have anything to compare it to ). I do get gradually better with whatever I play over a long period of time though. When I first started all those years ago, I couldn't even play the left hand in Fur Elise!

So anyway, as many of you know by now, I'm in from Piano World, and while I'm not leaving PW, I will come and hang out here for a while. I'm jgoo here, I'm jgoo there, really easy to recognize that name!

And now to all piano forum members, and visiting piano world members such as myself: Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!

[SandyS]

hi,

i'm anda, i am pianist and piano teacher.

Is that like "anda one, anda two, anda three"?   

[alexed]

hi, i just posted in the student forum, but found this when browsing! there's not much to say really. i just wanted some friends

[anda]

Is that like "anda one, anda two, anda three"?   

never thought of that
i chose "anda" as nickname cause it's somewhat similar to my real name and also as geza anda hommage (one of my favourite pianists ever).

[felinecholer]

I am Feline, I have been prowling around reading.  Nothing I write about myself in this post would be very useful for you, so I am writing just to let you know that I am around, watching.  It is good to meet your acquaintance.   I may be lurking about more and more, maybe not.

Feline

[Etude]

Hi, I've also been reading on this forum for a long time but i've only just made an account.

[puma]

Really not the best with intros, but here goes:

English Major, University student, been playing the piano since I was about 10 years old.  25 years old now and trying to develop a serious technique.  Currently working on Chopin.

[Vivers]

Hi Guys!

I'm Viv (or Vivers), and I'm a high school student in Alberta, Canada. I started piano when I was 5, then at 8, I took on the violin. After about 4 years, I left the violin, but had been continuing with piano during that time, and now, I play piano for local competitions, but keep the violin going for fun. I've never been that serious at piano, or music in general, it was always my sister who was the big pianist, but then she got fed up with her teacher and with the whole politics of Conservatories. I guess I still play under the shadow of her superiority, but that's alright. She left for university this year, and now that I have the house and piano to myself, I've found that I'm falling in love with the piano. I'm not planning on music as a career, but it's enjoyable. I'm in the Canadian RCM program, and I'm working on my ARCT (performers) right now.

[Deeply Satisfied]

Hi, I am Deeply Satisfied  .  I came across this forum by chance one day, have been reading it seriously ever since, and I am simply thrilled to have discovered it.  I am currently deeply embedded within Graduate Studies, aiming to make a professional pianistic career enjoying both performing and teaching.  Of course, I will always be learning too, lol. 

I admire the level of maturity and deep thought within this forum as well as the diversity and professionalism here.  Although I have browsed through bigger forums, I have come back here time and again as I very much enjoy the intimacey and caliber of dedication to the art.  It is a thoughtful and caring community (and I hope I am not intruding  ).  This is a treasure well worth the find! 

I have found, so far, that my time spent reading posts here has been extremely useful to my studies and my professional aims.  Through reading, studying, and applying some of the concepts and suggestions within the posts, I have even regained a deep sense of hope and satisfaction in my study that I thought had been lost.  Surprise!!!

I look forward to future encounters with you all.

Thank you much,
Deeply Satisfied 

[justme]

Hi, I'm just me. Justme here and justme in other forums. I basically want to say hi to some old friends. You know who you are. I miss you dearly.

as always,
just me

[olivarius]

     Hello everyone, nice to meet you

I'm 'OlivariuS' and i live in Belgium   (you know...it's that little country between france, germany and the netherlands  ) . It seems to be a very interesting forum here, so I decided to join

My father is a pianist and my grandfather plays also very well , but I only really started to want to learn piano since i was 15or16 . (i'm 17 now). I'm taking piano lessons since september 2004;

 but thanks to my "muscal" education, my level is a bit higher than someone who is doing his first year of piano. But since then i am really facinated by piano and music.

I hope I'll learn a lot thanks to this forum

[noelle]

Hi, everyone!

I'm Noelle, I'm 16 and a junior in high school.  I've been playing piano since I was 8 (this is my 9th year), but I'm definitely not as amazing as I "could be" after some 9 years of devotion.  Heh.  I was one of those weird kids who refused to listen to any music but classical, and up until age 15 would cover my ears and frown when anything modern (viz. especially pop or rap) was being played.
I took lessons from age 8-11, and then dropped piano for cello.  While I consider cello to be my main instrument, I am secretly unfaithful to it.  I practice piano more, despite thousands of dollars per year spent on music school in Boston.  Self-taught, though my father's been playing for almost 40 years and helps me sometimes.  I really want to resume regular lessons, soon.
My favorite composer is, undoubtedly, Rachmaninoff - but not for Rach3 alone, of course.

Well - yeah - I've been reading around here for a few days.  It's wonderful inspiration.

[dlu]

Nice to see all these new members (even if they are 'refugees' from PianoWorld)!

P.S. Ugh!!...I just started to make a vanilla milkshake then discovered I had noooo milk !!!...oh well, half-and-half to the rescue!!

[Jack Appleseed]

Hi, everyone!

I'm Noelle, I'm 16 and a junior in high school.  I've been playing piano since I was 8 (this is my 9th year), but I'm definitely not as amazing as I "could be" after some 9 years of devotion.  Heh.  I was one of those weird kids who refused to listen to any music but classical, and up until age 15 would cover my ears and frown when anything modern (viz. especially pop or rap) was being played.
I took lessons from age 8-11, and then dropped piano for cello.  While I consider cello to be my main instrument, I am secretly unfaithful to it.  I practice piano more, despite thousands of dollars per year spent on music school in Boston.  Self-taught, though my father's been playing for almost 40 years and helps me sometimes.  I really want to resume regular lessons, soon.
My favorite composer is, undoubtedly, Rachmaninoff - but not for Rach3 alone, of course.

Well - yeah - I've been reading around here for a few days.  It's wonderful inspiration.

Noelle, every 16 year old is amazing and has unlimited potential.  Don't ever sell yourself short.....keep going for the gold!  You are the the future.  You are AMAZING and WONDERFUL.  YOU!

jf

[Egon von Sprocket]