Author of “Two Lives to a Destiny”
Edited by Vaughn Harbin.
Introduction
Good-Day everyone! Before I begin to describe this real tale of a journey, my journey, to creating a musical, I would like to thank Classical Crossover Magazine for the opportunity of offering me, as well as you, this miniseries.
The Short Story – What kind of person creates a musical?
If you would like to keep this reading short, there is really no reason to read any further if you know what kind of person you are, compared to a person who creates a musical. In fact, the person I am talking about will create pretty much anything he or she sets their mind to, If…
…they are a passionate person.
…If they are the kind of person who will always be extremely passionate about their creation.
…if their passion grows stronger with the progression of their creation.
There is also a very important aspect you need to know about which is, protecting your creation at all costs. Although you are not an expert in every task you will undertake with your creation, you are the only one who really knows what it should or should not look like.
Along your journey, you may meet some shady people who are just out to make a buck, and who are not otherwise interested in your creation. Know how to recognize them and weed them out, fast! Know that the people you will always work extremely well with are the people that will share the same passion. In this case, this would be the passion to bring your creation to life. Do not worry, there are people in your surroundings who will be passionate about your creation, and who will want to be part of it. You will need to find them and choose wisely because you cannot do this alone, and the people you trust will make a difference in its success.
Finally, in order to conserve energy throughout your creative process, be careful not to mistake your passion for commitment. Commitment is a form of dedication to your goal during both good and bad times, even when barriers get in the way. Passion and commitment will always maintain the heartfelt energy you need to succeed, regardless of the time you need to bring your creation to life.
Remember this, only passion keeps a dream alive, like sunlight and water to a plant. Some say love is the strongest emotion of all, and maybe so…but, when you are in love, I would have to say there is nothing greater or stronger than being passionately involved.
If you are still reading, you might be curious as to the amount of passion I had to generate in order to get this far. How far is this far? You will need to read the entire series to find out!
Still reading, are you? A wise decision indeed! My story will show you exactly how passion redefined fate in the most amazing ways. Are you ready? Happy reading!
Chapter one – In the beginning!
I was born in Bedford, Quebec, Canada, and was 30 years old before becoming interested in music. This only happened because I was a bit bored with life and needed a new challenge. Playing the piano would become my new challenge in 1992.
This challenge was quite exciting for me and very different from my own lifestyle. My profession at this time was Auto Technician and I was working in my own independent service center called, Autos Experts Inc. I had 16 years invested in the trade and already had my own shop. Quite the contrast indeed, never-the-less, I quickly became an accomplished pianist.
While beginning to play the piano at 30 years old, I was able to finish my Preparatory within the first three weeks, then my First Grade within a couple of months, and played in the school’s recital in June 1993. The owner of the music school, Mr. Paradis, recognized my outstanding progress and singled me out of all the students in his school for mention in the local newspapers. In his opinion, I was a person of interest to look out for at the recital. Never having felt like a prodigy before, I was humbled by his interest, but little knew that this fame would be short-lived.
The day of the recital I was all fired up and ready to play. In the first half of the show, I would be playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and in the second half, I had an amazing surprise for everyone! I would be playing my very own sonata called, “The Dream”. The title of my sonata would become very ironic to me after its performance. The recital went beautifully for the audience, and I played both pieces flawlessly. People presented me with flowers after I completed playing my sonata and everything seemed perfect. But it was not…I went along with the attention; I smiled and shook hands with everyone like I was playing a role, but I knew something was terribly wrong.
I began playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, but after the fourth bar was played, I started shaking as if I suffered from Parkinson’s Disease. I was playing this piece subconsciously while trying to stop myself from shaking so much, but the shaking continued. Much to my surprise, my sonata in the second half of the show was played in the same way and I just could not stop the shaking. I am not talking about a little tremble; this was major, and my pieces became extremely hard to perform. There came a time in both pieces when my right leg, using the sustain pedal, began shaking, too. The way the piano was exposed to the audience of 200 people, they could not see much of this. However, my teacher and her daughter saw this from the side of the stage and could not figure out how the piece was being played with all that shaking going on.
Needless to say, everyone who had any experience in stage performances, chalked this up to stage fright and anxiety. At the time, I thought this made a lot of sense. But…that was not actually what was happening.
The next chapter will redefine me medically as well as musically. But to give you a hint about what happened next; after this, my one and only recital performance, I was no longer able to use a metronome while playing music. I was no longer able to count beats in my mind without feeling irritated and confused. Time signatures were out of bounds and there was no way for me to get back on track. I was really looking forward to going back to music school in September to fix this but, unfortunately, Mr. Paradis passed away and his wife closed the school and sold the building.
As I mentioned earlier, my acclaim was short-lived and I had a new hurdle to conquer, beats and time signatures! But my story was not over yet, even though this seemed to spell out the end of my thoughts of becoming a pianist.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2 – The Renaissance, 10 years later… Where had the passion gone?
