I have been singing my whole entire life. I have sung in church choirs, elementary, middle and high school choirs, and two college choirs. I had some basic lessons through middle and high school. When I started at Doane College, I received two music scholarships: voice and clarinet. I was classically trained by the late Stephen Bobst, who I miss dearly. After several years of not taking lessons, I restarted them again with Maren Amdal to improve my vocal range (I now have a nearly 4 octave range) and to go beyond my classical training into the musical style as well. Maren has been very helpful!
Clarinet
I originally got into the clarinet because of my grandpa. My dad's father played part-time with a jazz band. He had two clarinets (one wood, one metal) and a tenor saxophone. One of my cousins has his metal clarinet and his wood clarinet got passed on to me. We also got his tenor sax, too, and at one point I taught myself how to play "Amazing Grace" on it. Grandpa had passed away when I was 4 months old, so I never really knew him beyond the stories my father would tell me. When I started to play the clarinet the summer before 5th grade, I felt like I connected with a part of my grandpa and it was an amazing feeling. I continued to play through middle and high school and two years into college, where I received a scholarship. My teacher in high school was Leon Haeffner. For the life of me, I can't recall who taught me when I was at Doane College and I'm hoping I can find that out soon. In November of 2006, I restarted clarinet lessons with Sandy Powers.
Piano
I started piano lessons when I was 6 or 7 years old and continued until my family moved when I was 12. When we moved, we were unable to find an available piano teacher. I continued to practice and tried to teach myself up until I met Sandy. Sandy also teaches piano and has been very helpful in expanding my knowledge.
Recorder
As far as I know, every elementary school kid gets a soprano recorder and learns how to play it at school. Unlike most kids, I didn't stop playing at the end of the school year. I did try and teach myself a little more about the recorder and have even tried my hand at both the alto and tenor recorder that my parents have. I'm definitely better at the soprano and alto recorder. At one of Calliope's concerts, I accompanied the choir along with a percussionist for a Vietnamese song.
Ocarina
Over 10 years ago, my oldest brother was sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina for work. While he was there, he picked up an ocarina for me. I've had no formal training in the ocarina but I was able to pick up the basics pretty fast. The instructions were in Spanish and even with my limited knowledge of the language, I was able to understand it enough to teach myself.