If there’s one thing I’ve learned about being a classical musician, it’s that everyone’s musical journey is completely unique. Personally, I was somewhat late to join the game; I didn’t start playing my major instrument until I was already a teenager. This caused a lot of insecurities for me during my time in music school- Looking around at my peers, it seemed like everyone else started playing their instruments around the ages of 4 or 5, leaving me wondering if I could ever catch up, or if I even deserved to be studying music in the first place! After six and a half years in post-secondary school, I’ve learned that my “late-start” really doesn’t matter all that much. Plus, I’ve realized that everyone’s musical journey is a little bit unconventional somehow. So, here’s my story.
As a child, I was primarily two things: the first being an over-achiever, and the second being weird. Like, weird even for kid-standards, or… I suppose, weird especially for kid-standards. Although subjects like math, english, and science came fairly easy to me, friend-making never did. For the most part, I kept a very small circle of friends and was actually extremely shy until part-way through high school. I loved writing from the get-go (I remember being truly thrilled the day we learned how to use quotation marks in the third grade) and spent most of my time from grades 3-9 writing stories and hoping that one day I’d be an author.
Looking back on those early days, I didn’t have very much music in my life. There are traces of music across my family tree, but neither of my parents played an instrument, and we lived in a town too small and isolated for concerts. I remember having a small, 3 octave toy keyboard on which I figured out Christmas songs by ear, but we didn’t have any other instruments around the house, so it just wasn’t something I had exposure to.
Then: BOOM! Seventh grade. I graduated to Middle School, and although I was still considered weird (perhaps even weirder, since middle school is that time where everyone really starts caring about being “cool”), I had music class for the very first time! I wasn’t that interested in it, but remember enjoying trying all the instruments for the first time and choosing the one I wanted to play. So…I chose trombone.
Truly shocking, I know. But it’s true! I wish I had a photo! My first instrument was the trombone, and I played it for my entire seventh grade year with the intention to join the eighth grade band the next. However, I lived a far walk from school and didn’t live on a bus line, so dragging that huge, heavy trombone home from school was becoming too much trouble. Once grade eight began, I asked my teacher if I could switch to an instrument that wasn’t so heavy, so that walking home would be easier. And that’s how I started playing the flute. Funnily enough, I wasn’t super taken with it that year. I joined the eighth grade band, we competed at a few festivals, and I enjoyed it- but not enough to sign up for band again once I started high school the next year.
So, I didn’t. I registered for ninth grade music class to fulfill the mandatory credit and figured I’d be on my merry way. However, if I signed up for band, it would guarantee me an extra credit on my transcript, which my mom figured might be valuable in the long run. So, she called the high school and signed me up for band. Can you believe that!!!! To be honest, I was pretty annoyed about it. I didn’t want to be in band again! Turns out, it was the best thing that could have happened!
After a semester in grade nine band and a trip to compete at MusicFest Nationals in Toronto, I absolutely fell in love with the flute and with music-making as a collective experience. My band teachers, John and Sarah Lam (who are still cherished mentors and dear friends of mine) went completely above and beyond to keep me inspired by introducing me to new music, challenging me with new solos, and letting me tag along on their trips to Michigan to see concerts. To this day, they remain one of the biggest pillars of support for me and my career; they even came all the way to New York City for my Carnegie Hall debut last May! Being in high school band didn’t only introduce me to what would become my greatest passion, but it also finally gave me a place where I felt like I belonged. My trouble making friends and finding community ended when the band room introduced me to my best friend Katie, who is still my best friend all these years later.
After graduating first in my class from Glendale High School in the small town of Tillsonburg, Ontario, I attended Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, studying with the fantastic Sharon Kahan to obtain my Bachelor of Music degree with an Honours in Performance. I was so ready for university… it was going to be my fresh start! I was finally going to meet new people who were passionate about what I was passionate about! Surprisingly, I actually had a very difficult first year. I find it weird to write about being bullied in my first year at university, because when I imagine bullying, I generally think about young kids on the playground or teenagers texting each other mean things. But, after a few years of reflection, I think bullying is the right term for what happened to me that year. Maybe it happened to you, too, at some point in your life; let’s face it, music schools are small, and rumours travel fast! Even though I’m someone who loves to speak up, share my opinion, and be noticed- I found myself becoming as small and invisible as possible so that nobody had anything negative to talk about. I kept my head down, practiced, did my work, and left the school year feeling really down, and pretty bad about myself. Over that Summer, I reconnected with my best friend Katie and also attended my very first Summer Festival: The Consummate Flutist at Carnegie Mellon University. It was my first time learning about flute outside of Canada, and really inspired me to get back on the horse once I was back at school in the Fall.
I started my second year at Western University ready to practice, work hard, and try again to make friends. I joined a few clubs that helped me with my social anxiety and the year was… fairly normal! But, it suddenly all came to a halt with absolutely no warning: In March 2020, we were all sent home in the middle of the semester which began two years of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Being sent back to my childhood home in the middle of the semester was incredibly jarring. You remember it! For someone that’s always worked so hard and kept busy, there were suddenly no deadlines, no projects, and no certainty. The boredom and lack of structure led to a boom of new accounts on Instagram where musicians around the world began posting videos of themselves practicing. And that is how @gill.flutes was born! In May 2020, I began my Instagram page with the hope of staying inspired and inspiring others by sharing my practicing journey throughout the never-ending COVID-19 lockdowns. I had no idea that the Gill Flutes community would grow the way it has; like Bob Ross would say, it was a happy accident! I have continued to grow my page since then, branching off onto Youtube a year later, and now I find myself here, on Substack. It has been such a joy and extremely fulfilling connecting with musicians across the world, students and professionals alike.
When school rolled around again in September 2020, I’d found a new sense of confidence and freedom to share myself with others. The older students I had trouble with in earlier years had graduated, and I think all of our priorities shifted over that Summer of isolation; we were just happy to be with each other again! Katie also began her own Bachelor of Music degree at Western that Fall, and I finally started surrounding myself with a community of good friends. Although we were taking half of our classes online and half of them in person (and when we were in person, we were encased in plastic bubbles or spaced six feet apart), this was one of my favourite years of my life; in the face of uncertainty, change, and struggle, music students, teachers, and administration around the world stepped up to find a way to safely make music together. The problem-solving and creativity of this year helped influence the way I now problem-solve in the practice room: No matter how hard it is… find a way!
My final year of undergrad (2022) saw a return to fully in-person instruction and my first ever year playing with the Western University Symphony Orchestra. I had spent my entire music life up to that point playing in band, and it was so exciting to learn how the flute functions in the orchestral context. I played my graduating recital to a full-house and graduated with First-Class Honours and a deep respect for my institution and the faculty and colleagues I’d spent the last four years with.
The Summer of 2022 also saw a return to in-person Summer Festivals! That Summer, I attended Orford Music Academy in Quebec, as well as Domaine Forget, where I met and played for my forever-idols, Emmanuel Pahud and Julien Beaudiment. Seeing the two of them play Doppler’s Andante et Rondo at Domaine Forget that Summer is still one of the most magical moments of my life- I sobbed the entire time, just in awe of being there. It was so special, and I went back in 2023 to play for them both again.
In the Fall of 2022, I began my two-year Artist Diploma at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on full scholarship. Being accepted to study at such a prestigious institution was a dream-come-true (and a shock! I detailed my entire grad-school audition journey on my Youtube if you want to know more). Over my time there, I studied with the amazing & wonderful Susan Hoeppner and Nora Shulman, and really began to focus on my goal of winning an orchestral audition one day. Performing in the Royal Conservatory Orchestra was one of the most formative experiences of my entire music education, and I look back on my time there so fondly. I’m so grateful to have had both university and conservatory educational experiences and feel it really rounded me out as a musician & as a human being!
My Summers while I studied at GGS were also plentiful and left me with such profound educational experiences, amazing friends from all over the world, and enough memories to last a lifetime. I attended the Scotia-Festival of Music’s Young Artist Program (2023, 2024), Domaine Forget once again, and performed a Summer Season with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada (2024), with whom I made my concerto soloist debut in June of 2024.
During my two school years at the Glenn Gould School, I took my very first professional orchestra audition, played my first professional orchestra gig, fell in love with musical theatre and began performing as a pit-musician, became a guest clinician for public schools across Ontario, began a flute & percussion duo called Duo Rouge with my fellow red-headed friend, Jacob, and topped it all off with making my Carnegie Hall Debut alongside the Royal Conservatory Orchestra during the last week of school in 2024.
I graduated in June 2024, two months before moving to Pittsburgh to begin my Master’s of Music degree studying with Alberto Almarza at Carnegie Mellon University, where I had been five years prior for my first ever summer festival! Talk about full circle! Since moving to the USA, I’ve had the pleasure of continuing to grow my flute community online and offline, and I’m continuing to learn more about the flute, refining my playing every day. Plus, I just recorded on my very first album: the cast album for “A Perfect Bowl of Pho,” the first musical I was ever a part of in Toronto.
So that’s my story, still in-progress. What I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter what age you start your instrument, or where you grow up, or how many musicians are in your family. What matters is that you have a passion to learn, and grow, and get better every day. My dad always says that “life is about building a beautiful house, and every day, you put a brick in.” What’s your brick today? How will you keep moving forward in your story?
XOXO and #GoPractice!!
Love,
Gill Flutes
Amazing story!! crazy we were in school at the same time!