Erin’s Biography
Music has been a part of my life since the day I was born, literally. Mom and
Dad had their favorite bluegrass tape playing in the delivery room! Shortly
after Amber was born two years later, my dad bought a mandolin and started
learning to play. Amber and I accompanied him to his lessons, plus a lot of
bluegrass festivals and jams. These things cultivated my love of music and
desire to play myself.
I started taking group piano lessons when I was five years old. A year later,
Amber started playing piano and fiddle and I got jealous! Now she and Dad
both had instruments they could take with them to festivals, but the piano
didn’t travel so I was left high and dry. I started asking Dad for an instrument,
but I didn’t have my heart set on any particular one. In his great wisdom, he
decided to look for the cheapest instrument he could find me. That turned out
to be a mountain dulcimer—a little ¾ sized plywood instrument—which he
gave me for my seventh birthday. He may have chosen the dulcimer because it was inexpensive, but that gift changed the course
of my life forever.
I continued to take piano lessons from Mrs. Walker and Dad guided me through the basics I needed to know to play the mountain
dulcimer. When I was about ten years old, my family drove 3 ½ hours to Kansas City so I could get a few “real” dulcimer lessons
from Jim Curley. Over the course of the next several years, I took lessons and workshops from David Schnaufer, Stephen Seifert,
Larry Conger, and several other great mountain dulcimer players. I started entering mountain dulcimer contests when I was
thirteen, winning the Kansas State contest in 2001, Texas State in 2003, and the National Mountain Dulcimer Contest in 2004. At
age 17, I was the youngest ever to win the title.
I graduated from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Academy (our family’s homeschool) in 2005 and headed to Sterling College where I
studied classical piano for three semesters. My plan was to get my bachelor’s degree in piano performance and then go on to get a
master’s degree in music therapy. For a variety of reasons, I halted that path after 3 semesters and took some time to re-group.
That’s when I discovered South Plains College. Amber and I both made plans to start school there in the fall of 2007.
Two weeks before we were scheduled to leave for school, my world changed forever when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s
Lymphoma. I endured six months of chemotherapy treatments and hours spent in bed, too weak and sick to hardly move. Music
was a very important part of the healing process for me. I took my dulcimer along
to every chemo treatment and played it while I was hooked up to the IV. I also
listened to a lot of music and played whenever I felt well enough to do so. I was
pronounced cancer free in January 2008. Shortly thereafter, I recorded my first
solo CD, “Quiet Sunshine” as a response to my experience.
Finally, a year late, in the fall of 2008, Amber and I made it to South Plains
College. While there, I studied bluegrass mountain dulcimer, jazz piano, and
participated in ensembles in many different genres. My last semester, I was
honored to be in the prestigious audition-only Thursday Nite Live ensemble, as
well as the audition-only vocal jazz ensemble. I graduated with highest honors in
2010 with my Associates of Applied Arts in Commercial Music.
Since graduating in May, I have been touring with Scenic Roots, teaching private
lessons and workshops on mountain dulcimer, and continuing to study both piano
and mountain dulcimer. In addition to playing music, I enjoy hot tea, deep
conversation with good friends, studying the Bible and worshiping my Savior,
reading and writing, exploring new places and meeting new people, and the color
yellow. Someday, I still hope to become a music therapist, in addition to
performing and teaching music. Proverbs 17:22 says “a merry heart doeth good
like a medicine”, and my passion is to bring good medicine into the world through
music.
~Enjoy Life~
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