French horn

My journey playing horn started with the incredibly eccentric Mr. Okerlund in fifth grade.  I chose to play horn because that's what my mom played, and wouldn't you know, it's not the most popular instrument out there.  This means band teachers are always very encouraging about the whole thing.  I also got to have lessons alone when I started, something that the gaggle of flute players at my school never had. 

And I know there's an incredible picture of the two of us somewhere, I'm pretty sure I have a face full of braces, yikes, but in it's place, one from a concert in elementary school:

 

I'm not in frequent contact with the two young ladies pictured anymore, but one is working in special ed at a high school and is the new aunt to two cutie pie little kids.  The other was a star softball player for the University of Minnesota and is recently engaged.  (thanks, facebook).

But.  The point of this is to thank my parents for the endless private lessons, my actual horn (seriously a gift that has been so happily used), for coming to my concerts (well, mom and my grandparents, anyway), for not flipping out too badly when I wanted to be a music major, and for not getting too mad when I double-majored in music and biology, and then not getting upset when I switched to a major in biology and a minor in music.  Oh, I was a kid that knew what she wanted.  (ha)

One of the things that keeps me going here at MIT through the long days of lab is knowing that I have other things like music in my life.  After 17 years playing horn, All State Band, church choir, a world class music scholar teaching me about Haydn and Mozart over May term for an independent study, brass quintet playing for madrigals, and my current position in the MIT Symphony, well, let's just say I am a very lucky girl. 

Mom and I after the last MITSO concert of the season, the most recent in a long-running series of my family being around to support me in music.