About Me
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Aysha was born in Calgary, Canada, but moved to Hong Kong with her family until age five.
At the age of four, she went to Indonesia where she met a member of a Gamelan orchestra, who taught her the rudiments of his instrument. Her lifelong passion was born. Since then, she has lived her life for music.At five, her family moved to Edmonton, Canada, where she began learning flute. Over the next several years, she took up many other instruments, including viola, bass guitar, accordion, piano and guitar, but flute remained her first love.At age seven, she entered her first music competition. There was no category for her, so she had to enter the 14 and under division. She played accompanied by her friend and neighbour Stewart MacDougall, former keyboard player for kd lang, Ian Tyson and the Great Western Orchestra, and who subsequently became her piano teacher. She won two first places and received a scholarship. Since then, she has won 27 first places and 14 scholarships. At age ten, she won the Alberta 16 and under woodwind finals, winning the Molstad plaque and scholarship.At eight years old, she was accepted by Shelley Younge of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra as her youngest ever student. She quickly progressed under her guidance and by the time she was 10, was able to play university level pieces. She was still constrained by her size and breath capacity, but tried to find pieces where this did not matter too much.In January 2005, in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, she asked her parents if she could somehow raise some money for the victims.
She decided to ask Shelley Younge if she could help organise a little classical concert in a church. She then asked another of neighbour, renowned bassist Ron Rault, if he could help as well, and Higher Ground was born. The Francis Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton’s symphony hall, agreed to donate their facility. Aysha began calling musicians, and with the addition of producer Gary Koliger ( http://www.betasound.ca/ ) and many others, the concert was a resounding success, raising over $700,000.
The details can be found in the Video section of this page, but essentially the very best of Alberta’s talent, including the full symphony all played for free, in front of 1,700 people.Aysha decided that since she had made so many friends doing this, in the media, the music world and among the public, she would try another show the next year. Alongside friend and musical partner Bill Bourne, she got together with Edmonton charity Change For Children to put on a 30th anniversary show, also at the Winspear. Once again, the cream of Alberta talent turned out in support and the event was a great success. The following year, Aysha again raised significant funds for earthquake relief in Java, alongside Bill Bourne, Maria Dunn and Terry Morrison.Aysha has also been fortunate enough to study under some of the foremost musicians in the classical and roots worlds over the years. The highlights have been classes with Peter Lloyd (former principal flute of the London Symphony), Philippe Bernold, Harrie Starrevald, Maxence Larrieu, Paddy Keenan ( http://www.paddykeenan.com/ ), Marten Root, Chris Norman ( http://www.chrisnorman.com/ ), Jean Michel Veillon ( http://www.jmveillon.net/ ), David McGuinness ( http://www.concal.org/david.htm ), Aaron Au, Kevin Crawford ( http://www.greenlinnet.com/artists/kcrawfordbio.htm ). All of them have influenced her musical path.
In particular, Paddy Keenan opened her eyes to the depth and beauty of traditional Gaelic music and taught her to take the Tin Whistle seriously.
Marten Root showed her that she had barely scratched the surface of Baroque music.
David McGuinness showed her that you can be a brilliant classical musician, and still love all kinds of music.
Most recently, Teddy Thompson and Damien Dempsey inspired her to take guitar more seriously and to use it as a songwriting tool.In February 2007, Aysha visited Amsterdam and had a formal audition for the Amsterdam Conservatory, at Marten Root’s invitation. She was accepted by the jury and commenced studies there in September 2007 under Marten Root and Harrie Starreveld. Bill Bourne’s CD Boon Tang was released in March 2007, on which she plays. Aysha toured with him in the summers of 2006 and 2007, including several major festivals. They are now hard at work on the next CD, tentatively titled ’Drum!’. It’s going to be fabulous, they promise!Get Your Own! | View Slideshow /div
