Having grown up listening to classical music on the radio, I started piano early but my first teacher retired after a year and I languished with my next few teachers until closer to high school, where I ended up with a teacher that could see my potential and was willing to push me. When I started hitting the limits of her ability to teach, she introduced me to the local piano prodigy whisperer (who told me I possessed a modicum of talent but it was too late to make me great 🤷♀️) for supplemental lessons. Tried to juggle both engineering and music in university (spoiler alert: it did not go well), quit piano, and spent the better part of a decade flying around for work unable to practice regularly. Over the last 5 years or so I've started slowly getting back into piano on a digital keyboard, and discovering local piano meetup groups 2 years ago was a big turning point in my motivation, which led to me getting a hybrid piano (Yamaha N2) and deciding to try out a couple amateur competitions (Paris a couple months ago and Boston this coming week) this year.
What made you decide you'd make it your career?
While I studied briefly at the university level, I don't think I ever held any delusions that I could make piano work as a career — I applied to music school as a "nice-to-have" with engineering being my focus, and was fortunate enough to be able to study at that level for a brief moment in time.
What made you switch careers?
It was a combination of factors: 2008 happened, I (being classically trained in low self-esteem as well) didn't really feel like I had anything unique to say with my music, and I injured my hand in a cycling accident (I got better) — so I figured it was as good a time as any to hang up the hat.
What would you change if you could go back?
I would have taken way more advantage of student pricing for all the world-class concerts in the nearby big city. Maybe stick around until I took pedagogy classes so I could teach on the side. I dunno, in the vast landscape of Poor Life Decisions™️ I'd change, starting a piano degree and quitting it are pretty low on my list.