On 5 Sept. 2009, we took in the recital for students of Kaye's piano teacher . . . here is Kaye Elizabeth Phillips performing a piece by Schubert (Impromptus op.90 d.899 n.4) . . .

If you can't see the video embed in your stream, then go to my main blog at https://briandavidphillips.net/ or you can go straight to the youtube page for the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2LHavc-BFo and be sure to watch it in high definition.

Kaye has just begun her first year in a music specialty high school program at Tamkang High School (yes, the school where Jay Chou went; also the setting for the fantasy film "The Secret"). This is the oldest music specialty high school program in Taiwan and actually has been noted for having much more music emphasis and coursework for students than other schools with similar programs.

Kaye entered the program with a major in piano and a minor in cello but from the get-go her intention has been to drop cello and switch to a major in music composition and minor in piano (dropping cello which she is the opposite of strong in like a hot potato). 

Last week, Lorraine and I visited the campus and chatted with the supervising music instructor and told her of Kaye's plans (we wanted to make sure she could take some extra instruction to prepare her for the transfer). Kaye's dream is to be a professional composer and she's been writing original piano music since she was thirteen. We were asked to have Kaye prepare a submission packet of sheet music for some of her compositions and an audio CD (I put together a new CD for her with her newer compositions rather than use her first audio CD which some of you are familiar with). On Monday, Kaye submitted her packet and on Tuesday the music instructor told her she did not need to attend cello class and last night she told me she's definitely switching to composition – although we're not yet sure if they are starting her at a composition minor to get a feel for it or as a major right away . . . either way, she's more than a little happy (as are we as this is her talent and the sooner she follows that bliss, the better).

She has some of her older compositions on her webpage at http://www.kayephillips.com (although that page tends to stand dormant at the moment with no updates in quite some time – it's a myspace thingie and I imagine eventually, we'll move it to a more fully fledged beastie).