In the Name of Love

Grace is a busy teenager who is currently a sophomore at Sage Hill High School in Newport Beach. She moved from Houston, Texas to Irvine, California the summer before 6th grade, and her parents expected her to take piano lessons. Grace started as one of the numerous students who found themselves learning a skill that requires an enduring dedication that was not of their choice. My goal for these students is to get them to love the piano no matter what it took.

Along with adjusting to a new state, a new city, new schools, and meeting high standards all around her, Grace has now been taking piano lessons for 4.5 years and is already learning Late Intermediate level pieces! The best thing about her journey is that she enjoys practicing. Her mother tells me when Grace has the time, she would practice for a long time. When Grace realized there was an acoustic piano at her high school, she would practice on it after classes until she was picked up (this was fun for her as she has had a digital piano at home). She recorded one of her current piano pieces on the school's piano and was excited to share it with me.

It doesn't matter how you start; it matters how you get there. I am enormously proud of Grace for pushing through musical foundations and getting to where she is at now with piano and herself. Brava, Grace!