This post is about three young women - outstanding music performers, each with world wide fans counted in the many millions. And they are more than that. I don't know them personally, nor do they know me. But I respect and admire them. I even care for them in my prayers. I follow their development in the way my sports-loving, older next door neighbour follows young top-line golfer Lydia Ko through every tournament. Do these three youngsters warrant a post being written about them? Yes! So please read on. Amira Willighagen
Grace Vanderwall
I like lots of Grace's songs. Here's the video of one called City Song. A click will bring it up. Or to see her America's Got Talent audition, click here. Emily BearEmily I found by browsing YouTube - something I do a lot. Emily wasn't in talent shows. She didn't have to be. At an incredibly early age she began fiddling on the piano, by age 4 she was learning from a teacher and by 6 she was writing her own compositions and playing at the White House for President Bush. In 2010, Bear made her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 9, playing her own piece for orchestra and chorus, Peace: We Are the Future. Since then she has played classics and her own compositions with various orchestras, and moved into jazz, with mentoring from the great Quincey Jones. That led to her, at age 13, playing at the Jazz Open in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2015 with her own ensemble. And this year, as seen below, she creamed her way across Europe. Emily performing at The Proms in various cities across Europe 2018 To see Emily playing Bumble Bear Boogie at The Proms please click here. More than musicI follow these three talents not just because they are outstanding music performers. They are that, but they also have a respect for humanity and a humour for life which I admire and love. Emily who lives in Rockford, Illinois has just been admitted to the Order of Lincoln, the State's highest honour for professional achievement and public service. She's the youngest ever. She plays charity concerts for good causes and the profits from all seven of her CDs have designated charities. Piano playing prodigy she may be but she seeks to break out from that label. Now she is composing and singing pop songs. She's a teenager! Amira on her early visits to South Africa noticed the absence of playgrounds for African children and determined to do something about it. So now that she earns professional fees, and income from CD sales, she funds the building and maintenance of playgrounds. In 2014 she received the International Giuseppe Sciacca Award in Rome for her singing achievements - an award that only goes to a person who also has social responsibility. Amira is an athlete too. Hockey and cross country. are big parts of her life. Grace seems to bubble her way through all the things she does - promotes music at local schools, goes with Starkey Hearing to Kenya to work with children there, plays and sings in children's hospitals and clinics, greets young fans as equals and is well aware that she is a role model for others her age. She too has won various recognitions - notably Billboard's Women in Music Rising Star Award. And now she has the lead in the upcoming Disney film Stargirl. HopeThese three young women may not be well known in New Zealand, where I live, but they seem to me to offer goodness to the world wide music industry, which is sometimes a bad place. I see people like them as pictures of future hope. If all that sounds a bit lofty, well, their performances, interviews with them and interviews with their parents are all over the internet. If you have some spare minutes a search on YouTube should prove very enjoyable. ########## John McInnes
Friday 28 December 2018 - Have a happy New Year. Special note: Friday afternoon posts on this blog will continue through the New Zealand Christmas summer holidays, except on 11 and 18 January. Then weekly posts will resume Friday 25 January.
0 Comments
|
Welcome
|