KATHRYN MARIE LIGON: THE EARLY DAYS

I always used to say that my father taught me how to sing, but it was my mother that introduced me to classical music at such a young, innocent age. I, Kathryn Marie Ligon, am always going to recall the sweet sounds of Vivaldi's tender violins and the grand gestures of Puccini's operatic vocals when I think of my musical upbringing. 
Living with so much and yet no enough to take professional piano lessons habitually like so many of my other musically gifted friends, I taught myself how to read music and how to play the rickety, out-of-tune piano we found hidden in the back corner of our garage in our old, weathered house beginning at the age of five and continued to grow musically when I joined my junior high band and took up the flute--my first love, as I would call the instrument today. Voice only came second to the flute in those early days, and I continue to this day to pick up my beloved Yamaha and to become one with the instrument in beautiful melody.
No, it was my high school choir directors discovered my voice before I ever did herself. They trained me well, and before I knew it, I was the one singing and challenging myself to be the best vocalist I could be, just as I did with piano and flute beforehand. I continued with voice at the university level.
After all of that, though, I would certainly say that my one true love in the whole entire universe is to write and compose my own music. I began to practice this art form at the age of twelve and did not stop, even when the sounds in my head did not necessarily match what I had written on the paper. I was once told by a very dear colleague of mine that I was going to write a lot of 'crap,' as she put it, before I became great. So, I pursued this art with great passion and became a very excited, very prominent figure on my own playlist because of it. Starting in university, I finally received the training I deserved and so desperately needed to create the soaring melodies that consistently occupied my mind, and so I truly came to life in my adulthood and I continue to shine on to this very day with every aspect of my musical prowess.