A Classically Trained Violinist...Gone Rogue

Hi Steemians!

In my first "introduce yourself" post, I talked about my passion for pole dancing. In this post, I'd like to introduce another aspect of myself - The Fiddler.

I've been playing violin since I was 5 years old. This is me (on the right) and my younger sister, just before one of our first performances together on the same stage.

I grew up surrounded by music and was performing on stages very soon after I started lessons. My Mom was the choir director at our church, so I spent every Sunday of my childhood singing and playing violin for Sunday mass. Throughout high school I was practicing a minimum of 3 hours a day and played in multiple orchestras over the years, including the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (TSYO). Music was my life for those years, and I loved and hated it at the same time. My Mom is a large part of why I was able to stick with it and keep improving and practicing. I'm very grateful to her for that. When it came time to choose a path for my education and eventual career it just didn't seem practical to pursue music. I had this limiting belief that you couldn't make money and support yourself as a musician.

So, during undergrad and grad school, music took a bit of a back seat in my life, and I've definitely been missing it. I've been making an effort in the past few months to put myself in musical environments, going to open mic nights around the city and meeting some amazing people. I've been playing more and more music and experimenting with jamming along to different styles. Here's a video where I improv along to "Wolves" by Selena Gomez:

I'm having a lot of fun experimenting and am looking for new ways to incorporate music into my life daily. I've even decided to put myself out there as a freelance musician, as scary as that is! I'm excited to connect more with other Steemit musicians and welcome suggestions for music to learn/jam along to!

Do you have any songs that you'd love to hear violin/fiddle added to? Let me know in the comments!

Check out my website if you'd like to learn more about my music: Jackie O Music

Thanks again to @jaybird and @dan-atstarlite for the introduction to Steemit! Having a great time so far. :)

Stay tuned ;)

Jackie O