My Story
How Music Begins
Looking back, being a musician for me is being a reflection of everyone who's influenced me - a mix of all the people I learned from, played with, and was inspired by.
That's why I feel my story is told best through the people who shaped it. Without them, it would be a very different story.
My Most Important Teacher
Heather Anne Walter
The most important teacher I’ve ever had wasn’t a music teacher - though she is a fantastic musician herself. Heather owned and ran 2001: A Fish Odyssey, a small, busy local fish, reptile, and pet store, where she welcomed young volunteers and took the time to teach us what it meant to truly run and care about a business.
With Heather, nothing was too big or too small. We cleaned cages, stocked shelves, greeted customers, handled sales. All of it mattered. She even covered the register display so we had to do the math ourselves, teaching us to think, not just press buttons. Everything came with a reason, and it always connected back to respect - for the animals, the customers, and each other.
My sister and I started working for Heather when we were fourteen, and the lessons she taught me became part of who I am. Her patience, her explanations of why, and her unconditional support shaped everything I've done since.
Of all the stories I could tell about music, at my core I feel I am a teacher first. The lessons Heather taught me - and especially the way she taught them, are what I strive to repeat in every meaningful interaction I have.
It's often the smallest moments that stay with you. Like the day she stood up for me when I got the name of a frog slightly wrong. I've remembered that almost every day since.
If I can give back even a portion of what she gave me, then I've done something good.
My First Piano Teacher
Delight Scouton
My first piano teacher was Delight Scouton, a classically trained pianist who taught my sister and me from age six into my teenage years. Her lessons were rooted in classical repertoire, sight-reading, and classical technique.
What I loved about playing early on was that the piano let me escape into another world. I could disappear into the music, unaware of everything happening around me, creating a world filled with emotion, limited only by my imagination.
I remember my mom listening to me play for hours. I was never asked to stop, never scolded for not practicing. Music became a deeply personal expression for me, and both in lessons and at home I was only supported - usually with my mom beaming and clapping in the background.
My Inspiration
My first real inspiration at the piano was my father. He played classical piano - Beethoven, Mozart, Bach - and the pieces I learned growing up were the same ones I heard him playing. I grew up with him filling the house with classical music, and I spent most of my childhood trying to emulate the sound and feeling that came from his playing.
He inspired me to want to play, to learn, and to try to capture what I heard in him.
Through that inspiration, I discovered how music could transport me somewhere else - sometimes calm, sometimes full of energy, always safe and completely mine. Some of my earliest memories are of that feeling: being carried into another world.
My First Recital
1989
My first recital was June 12th, 1989, when I was seven. It was at my local elementary school, just a few blocks from home. I remember getting ready - nervous, excited and wanting to wear my favorite blue shark T-shirt. My mom kept insisting that everyone else would be dressed up. I was sure she was wrong.
She wasn’t.
Everyone was dressed up - except me. She could've let me learn that lesson the hard way, but instead she ran home a change of clothes and made it back just in time.
I'm not saying that great lessons aren't learned through hardship. But I couldn't know until much, much later how having that moment be a positive one would stay with me and forever shape how I would feel about performing.
I didn't realize until much later how much that moment would shape how I feel about performing. Music has a way of teaching you to show up, even in the smallest moments - because you never know which ones will stay with you so many years later.
Looking back, it wasn’t just my first recital. It was one of those moments that ended up meaning everything.
Thank you Mom.
My First Musical Influences
