"Daddy! Can I please play the violin like you?" This was my most pressing question at age six. By seven, Dad gave in hoping that studying this difficult instrument at my young age wouldn't dull my enthusiasm for it. He so wanted one of his four daughters to be a violinist. The following year I was the guest soloist with the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra, beginning a lifelong love of music, performance, and sharing my musical gifts with others.

At nine, Dad and I ~ just twenty feet from the stage ~ watched Yehudi Menuhin perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. The beauty of that melody became the driving force of my practice time. I wanted nothing more than to play that concerto! At twelve, Mendelssohn and I placed third in a scholarship competition.

At age twelve, I began "strumming" my violin and wailing to Del Shannon's "Runaway". Mom quickly bought me a ukulele and my singing career began! I started leading church/girl scout campfire sing-a-longs. At thirteen I tirelessly taught myself chords on a used guitar, learning folk and popular rock songs from the radio. Mom seized an opportunity to feature her (now) three singing daughters at church events, school functions and nursing homes. The harmonies between us continue today.

Sisters

Life changed dramatically in November of 1992 when Ann Roberts, the choir director and pianist at Unity Church in Albany, asked my father if he'd perform a violin piece with her. Dad agreed if his daughter could perform with him. I met Ann at our first practice. That performance never happened. But Ann, upon learning I was a singer, begged me to sing in the choir. I agreed, "but just for Christmas."

In 1992, an opportunity presented itself to become the choir director at Unity Church in Albany. In my seven years as director, I learned "everything I never knew" about church choral singing, directing/music selection, performing, concerting" and CD recording.

This "classical violinist" started experiencing the beauty of blended human voice, and, in the context of Christian-based music, began feeling stirrings and awakenings previously unknown. For the next several years I attended NYS choir directors workshops, sight-singing through 80+ pieces of contemporary Christian/praise & worship music in a day with hundreds of trained choral directors. I was in heaven! I even flew to California to attend a weeklong directors conference at the Crystal Cathedral, and sang in the "Hour of Power" choir at week's end. I integrated all of these experiences into the fabric of Unity's choir music.

Ysaye Barnwell