I have spent quite some time trying to confine myself to a box. What am I? A singer? A pianist? A musician? With time, some deep thought and plenty work with a therapist, I have come to the conclusion that I can either check all of those boxes or  none at all. Maybe it’s the middle age talking, maybe I have just outgrown certain belief systems that I used to hold onto, who knows. But I think the time has come to simply accept the fact that I have a lot of interests and that they all fit into what or who I am.

Aside from the music, I was always drawn to the stage as a performer. Never a dance enthusiast, I was drawn to the dramatic side of the theatre, and, as luck would have it, I had two incredible teachers in grade school that nurtured the arts – in my case, both the dramatic and the musical side. From grade 2 until 4, our class put on two plays every year along with concerts where we sang popular songs of the day – international and local (Austrian). I was given many opportunities to showcase my various talents for which I will always be grateful to my one teacher in particular, Margit. She encouraged my outgoing nature, only on the stage, of course. In the classroom? Not so much.

Later on, as a teenager, I even performed in an actual, professional theatre in Vienna, the Auersperg-Theater, where I was part of a production of Molnar’s The Paul Street Boys. It was a version thereof, slightly changed to adapt to the many female actors in the group. That was one of the best experiences of my teenage years. I finally met people who were like me – quirky outsiders who didn’t fit in any high school clique. It was honestly the time of my life then.

We workshopped for weeks, rehearsed intensely and had a number of shows. AND, we got paid. It was my first professional theatre gig and I couldn’t have been happier.

Sadly, that theatre closed its doors in 2002.

As an adult, I also appeared in the play Black Comedy by Peter Schaffer. A bunch of us from the theatre organised the production with the help of MKC Maribor, a youth cultural organisation. We performed at the Narodni Dom Maribor – The Culture House of Maribor, a cultural institution with a long-standing history of promoting the arts in Maribor.

Another more serious hobby of mine is writing. Being a bookworm from a young age and having been a dedicated journal keeper as a child and throughout my teenage years, I kept at it through various forms because I have been encouraged not only by my mom (thanks, mom) but also by teachers throughout my school years. My first such impetus towards writing came in grade 5 where my teacher made me read my story to the entire class. Another such instance came in high school where my classmates voted my story the best of the class. Not a bad feat for an immigrant with a strange letter in her last name.

Although my writing is something I mainly do for myself, I have written a little blog, one that I might return to in the future. The blog is about the loss of my sister in 2018. I somehow managed to turn a pivotal and incredibly traumatic moment in my life, one that has defined a new era of questioning my very existence, into something creative. A couple of songs have also been recorded, others are still in the making.

Which leads me to another artistic endeavour which I hope to spend a little bit more time on – songwriting. My first songs came about in high school in Ottawa, then took a leave of absence only to return years later in Maribor. The trio Serafine has given me the opportunity to arrange some songs. Now the time has come to record some of my own songs which will probably appear individually on music platforms, rather than as an album in its entirety. But then again who knows what the future will bring.