Introduction

 

My name is Renée, and I’m a double-degree student in my senior year, finishing up a BA in History and a BFA in Art (with focuses on Drawing & Painting). Outside or alongside school, I’m also a writer, and storytelling is what initially led me to history and art. I moved from Anchorage to Fairbanks last fall to complete my degrees in residence, and despite the scary looking negative numbers, the cold really isn’t as bad as I thought it would be!

As for music, I’ve always been a performer and a dabbler. I started singing very young, wrote a few songs, and have played several instruments in and out of school. I consider the violin my first love, but I had to leave it after middle school in favor of guitar and piano (I couldn’t make the very early morning practices for orchestra). I only became good enough at piano to accompany myself with chords, though I can also play the first few measures of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata — I plan to get better at all my instruments once I finally graduate! I also plan to study songwriting and composing, to try to go beyond my elementary/middle school attempts at both.

When I listen to music, it’s usually classical music or instrumentals and ballad-type songs that are emotive and tell a story. I also like some 80s or 80s-style rock, because I love those soaring high notes, as well as the type of storytelling lyrics that often go with them. I usually find concerts too loud though, and don’t often go to other music venues, just because of the time and money factor. Recently, I’ve been paying attention to the soundtracks of shows that I watch (mostly non-English), trying to analyze what I like about them and what I think works well or not. Related to that, I don’t feel the need to listen to music much, because I usually have themes from whatever Kdrama or Cdrama I’ve been watching playing on repeat in my head.

To round this out with a song that I enjoy, this is “One Day” by Kim Feel from the soundtrack of a show I watched a few years ago — the show ended up being a dud, but the song, and the whole soundtrack, was really good. For context, it accompanied the tragic death of the child-main character’s father in the first episode (and my uncontrollable sobbing). It starts slow, but the raw tone of the performer and the emotive melody are powerful — he is Kim "Feel" indeed.

Photo credit this post: https://remenyi.com/

Photo credit main page: https://www.benningviolins.com/history/types-of-medieval-stringed-instruments