Writing fiction and poetry is not the only artistry that defined my life. When I was a child, about six or seven years old, I started playing the violin. My family has some history of music; both of my parents can play the piano, my mother used to play the clarinet, my aunt plays the violin, and my two sisters used to take violin lessons like I did until they switched to the harp and cello.
I grew up taking violin lessons from many teachers in Billings. When I was twelve, I joined the Billings Youth Orchestra (it was called the Billings Youth Orchestra at the time; now it’s part of the Billings Symphony and it’s currently called the Billings Symphony Youth Orchestra). I remember playing Bouree from one of the Suzuki books for my audition to get into the youth orchestra. The orchestra is divided into four separate ensembles: Preludios, the beginner level; Concert Orchestra; Young Artists; and finally Repertory, which is the highest level and includes a full orchestra. The other lower three orchestras have only string ensembles. I started out in Concert Orchestra. I have fond memories of my first years in the BYO, such as performing my first concert in December 2007.
I have to say that my fondest memories would be the spring of 2008. The Concert Orchestra went on a tour in March. That tour was so much fun! It started with a Friday trip to Red Lodge and played one of their schools (with a few stops along the way, such as playing for some schools in Laurel and Roberts). The next day, we went on an overnight trip to Helena with some stops on the way. I vaguely remember the music workshop we did, and how the lady running the workshop told us to think of something beautiful while we played the Reverie arrangement by Susan H. Day. Oh yes, playing that piece of music was another fond memory. Reverie was one of the most beautiful, dreamy pieces I had played at the time. We had a lot of recreational activities to enjoy while on tour too, such as swimming in the pool in our hotel (which I believe was the Shiloh Inn), having ice cream and riding a carousel with not just horses but an assortment of animals (including frogs if I remember correctly!) and going to the Helena Symphony concert in the evening. What was so funny about the concert was that they played a piece from Beethoven that we were playing, and I remember hearing some of the girls in front of me whispering, “They stole our song!” They also played the full arrangement, whereas Concert Orchestra played a simplified arrangement.
I went on two other tours when I was fourteen and fifteen. They were every bit as fun. The second tour took us to Wyoming (I’m afraid I can’t remember where, though) and the third tour took us to Missoula, Montana. During the third tour,
Getting up into higher orchestras was a little bit of a challenge. I was still in Concert Orchestra was I was fourteen. By the time I was fifteen and ready to try another audition to move up, the two middle orchestras combined into one orchestra, and this was where I was when the tour to Missoula happened. When I was sixteen years old, I finally made the audition into Repertory. My music skills improved by this time, too; when I was about sixteen, maybe closer to seventeen, I had been asked by both Preludios and Concert Orchestra to mentor for them! Of course I did, and I enjoyed that a lot. I want to say that sometime later, I remember wanting to mentor only Preludios, but ended up adding Concert Orchestra to my list when I heard them rehearsing Reverie. Nostalgia alert! The last tour I took with the BYO was in March of 2012, and it was a local tour between the two lower orchestras. I went along as the mentor. We performed at St. John’s, had pizza at Tarantino’s, and some frozen treats at Billings Best Yogurts. I remember entertaining the children with a “scary” story (in my defense, they asked for one!).
During my later years with the BYO, they established a girls’ chorale, which I joined during my senior year of high school. I wish I could have had more time with them, but that one year was beautiful nonetheless. My friend in the chorale even invited me to take part in the choir when Nova Center for the Performing Arts had a couple opera performances of La Traviata.
I have to say that my favorite music to play on the violin would be Celtic fiddle music. I joined the Billings Ceilidh Fiddlers when I was seventeen. I remember the first time I played for the annual Fall Balls, for which the Ceilidh Fiddlers plays live music. Initially, I attended the annual fall and spring balls as a regular dancer with my siblings and friends. The last spring ball was in 2014 (unless you count the extra ball hosted in the spring of 2021, due to the fall ball having been cancelled due to the 2020 pandemic). After joining the Fiddlers, I frequently played for one half of the ball and danced the other half. I want to say that the last time I danced an entire ball was in 2023, when I was celebrating my tenth annual ball anniversary. By that time, however, my siblings, friends, and I were long out of high school, and many of them moved out of Billings. So nowadays, I play for the balls with the Fiddlers. And I love it so much that I almost don’t miss dancing!
Here’s a little collage of my ball fiddling from the past few years.
The balls weren’t the Fiddlers’ only events. We’ve played gigs at local senior living communities, a couple of St. Patrick’s Day gigs at the Pollard Hotel in Red Lodge, a St. Patrick’s Day gig at Craft Local just this past March, and many, many more!
Anyway, even after I graduated from high school in 2014, I continued to take private violin lessons. Shortly before I graduated, I auditioned for the Billings Symphony, and I got in as a substitute musician. I auditioned again in 2015, then a few times more after I finished college, but I am still only on their substitute list. Which is okay; my foot is still in the door! The Symphony office has called upon my services quite a bit too since I first joined as a sub: they had me a couple more times after SIP in 2014, such as their Christmas concert that year; I played for their opening season concert in September 2022; I’ve played for a couple of their free family concerts hosted in January, and I’ve played for Symphony in the Park several times.
Enjoy another collage.
After a while, my teacher encouraged me to take private lessons from the Billings Symphony’s concertmaster, and I did for a few years, mostly during my time in college when I declared a major in Music. I started going to Montana State University of Billings in 2015, but I focused mainly on general education; I didn’t declare my Music and English majors until later in my college years. I wanted time to truly think about what I wanted for my future. I loved the music department at MSUB. I felt like the teachers truly invested in their students (not to mention some of the hilarious inside jokes that arose among us). Music students were required to attend the student recitals, including performing and stage managing for at least two, and strongly encouraged to attend local music events. I had my senior violin recital in April 2021. In fact, it was the music department that brought me back to the Billings Youth Symphony Orchestra for the first time since I graduated high school. Because of the low number of string students, the music department didn’t have an orchestra, so the BYO let string students such as myself play in the Repertory for college credits. Before that happened, though, I ended up playing my violin in the oboe section in the symphonic band! I also attended the college’s choir for a few credits as well.
On a rare occasion have I used my musical talents for plays. During the spring of 2015, my then-teacher invited me to play my violin for eight performances of A Little Night Music by Nova. A few years later, in early 2018, I got a chance to play my violin for Nova again, this time for six performances of Quilters. Oh my goodness, I really enjoyed playing for actual performances, and I really do hope I get more chances in the near future. Otherwise, I always look for opportunities to play my violin for local events, such as Farmers’ Market or the Christmas lights events at the Montana Zoo.
Christmas collage!
Now, here we are with so much violin history, and yet the word viola is in the title of this blog. Well, during the summer of 2020, one of the piano teachers at MSUB had a viola for sale. And I thought, why not? The viola is only a little bit bigger than the violin. You play them the exact same way. It’s just a matter of learning to read a new clef, the tenor clef, on the viola. I already had some experience with reading tenor clef because in my piano classes, we were taught how to read tenor clef. So I bought that viola, and I have opportunities to keeping playing the viola by mentoring the viola section in the youth orchestra. But while mentoring the youth orchestra is the main opportunity for me to play my viola, it isn’t the only opportunity. Just this past May, I joined the Fiddlers in playing at Ben Steele Middle School – and I brought both my violin and my viola along! I had to keep switching between the two instruments.
So that about sums up my musical career. Music major, substitute in the Billings Symphony Orchestra, mentor for the youth orchestra, and proud member of the Billings Ceilidh Fiddlers.
And stay tuned for how my music career has inspired my own fantasy writing!
