Throughout my teenage years I wrote songs but once I immersed myself in the lieder of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, I dedicated myself entirely to reinterpreting their timeless compositions. Sometimes between programs, I longed to write, but I’d push the impulse aside telling myself things like “Leave that to people who know what they’re doing,”…

It’s taken me a long time to realize that it’s not about judgment, perfection or comparison but about allowing myself to experience an artistic process rooted in play, authenticity, vulnerability, and curiosity - creating simply as a way of giving myself space to grow in different directions.