by Kimberlee Tanner

Created on: May 23, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The violin is an instrument that I really didn't think much of growing up. I would soon find out that I was a violin prodigy. When I was 9 years old, I attended a sleep-over at a friends house. She had just started taking violin class in school, where they offered orchestra in the fourth grade. My school didn't offer it until the sixth grade. Her new violin got passed around like a childhood love letter. The first time I held it in my hands I knew that was what I wanted to do. The first thing I told my mother when I got home was "I want a violin!". I was so enthusiastic about it, and she wondered where this idea came from. I told her, and her eyes lit up. In all of my 9 years, she had never told me that she really wanted me to play the violin. The passion was something I would have to find on my own. I did just that.

My mother bought me a cheap student model, although it didn't sound or look like what I thought it would. The sound was raspy and almost ear-piercing, and the body wasn't composed of the gorgeous multi-toned wood grain I had seen before. The dislike for that particular violin did not dampen my spirits.

I had two years of self-teaching experience by the time I joined the orchestra in the sixth grade. I simply could not believe how many of my fellow students had an interest in the orchestra. When everything was said and done, there were 51 of us in the beginner class. Of those 51, 33 of us were violins, and I felt intimidated and overwhelmed. We were taught a "try out" piece, which we used to determine where we would be placed in the class. I made first stand, second chair. By the time the Christmas concert came, I was first chair. My teacher was amazed at the fact that I played Winter Wonderland by ear, and that became the only solo that year. I went from beginner to advanced following the respective years in middle school.

I decided that I wanted to be in the school that my friend was attending. We moved, and I started a new high school in a new district. I was floored to find out that there were only 15 students in the orchestra, between 9-12 grades. I received funny looks from the other students, like maybe they thought I was in the wrong class. Even the teacher questioned my presence. When I explained to them that I was a violinist and I belonged there, no one really believed that I was good enough to play with them. I set up my instrument, and started playing from my memory bank of music. The first day of school, I was first stand, first chair.

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