Music is the heart’s greatest medicine. It is also, to me, the most beautiful form of human expression.  Whether you are a student, an entrepreneur, or a real estate agent, music allows us to escape into a safe space and free ourselves from hurt. Words, when put to the right melody, strike deeper than a letter or text - they find a way to reach the soul.

My earliest connection to music began the year I turned three, which was also the year that I was diagnosed with leukemia. For two years I fought this disease. At night, during the worst of it, my mom and dad would sing to me to help me sleep. They sang to help me stay calm, and to remember that the light was still there. Now, even in remission, music makes me feel at ease, understood, and most of all, free. I believe that music is what truly healed me. It saved me from my fears, made me stronger, and has unequivocally shaped me into who I am today.

My journey with cancer has encouraged me to give back to the hospital that cured my body, and to aid other children who are still fighting. I have offered up my voice and story to help childhood cancer research and music therapy fundraisers such as the Michael Cuccione Foundation Gala, Music Heals Gala, and the Hearts of Gold Gala. I select repertoire to instill hope and courage. To show people that cancer IS beatable, and that it can make you a warrior. It has been events such as these that have grown my love for the stage and my comfortability with expression and portraying a story. Because truly - what is a performance without a story behind it?

When I started singing lessons at age eight, my teacher and I focused on a wide range of music and skill development. This included piano, guitar, ukulele, music theory, songwriting, as well as a full range of vocal styles. It was not until high school that I began to realize that musical theatre was the genre I most enjoyed. So I started taking acting classes and dance lessons, all focused around musical theatre. I have now been training for nine years with my voice instructor, I have been accepted into an arts school for vocal performance, and I am the proud member of an international award winning choir. 

However, 2024 was the year that solidified my love of Musical Theatre, because I was given the opportunity to join the Lord Byng Theatre Company. In my first year with the company we put on none other than a production of Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown. Quickly, I recognized that putting on a full show is no small feat. At the start, our three hour days were focused on the musical numbers and somehow I was selected to be a vocal captain for when our music director left to work on a different production. But soon after, three hours became nine hours.. meaning forty-five hours a week on rehearsal, lines, teaching and touching up the music and dance numbers. In my heart I knew that the long hours, the blood sweat and tears, would make or break my love of the show. Yet everyday I would come back with more enthusiasm, despite little sleep, ready to grind with my castmates to tell a story.  Because the story is everything. Performing is constantly a place where I feel most comfortable and confident and the stage is something I will always strive for - not because I want the spotlight, but simply because I feel the most freedom of expression up there. I don’t think I can live without it. I adore it. It’s home.