Phillip Milbouer: "Skills may come from the bloodline, but the passion of doing something is di

My whole family has a history in music. My great aunt was an organist for a church, my dad’s a professional bassist, my mom sings, and all of my siblings play an instrument. As for me, I learned how to play the piano by age 12 and then focused on the harp when I entered high school. I was skeptical at first because what I really wanted was to play the piano for my school, but we needed more harpists that time so I tried it out anyway. Next thing I know, I was in love with the instrument. I love it so much that I would use my lunch and free times to practice the harp and that eventually turned into a passion. I was even regarded a prodigy by my teachers because by the time our seniors graduated during my freshman year, I was the best harpist in school and that carried on for three years.

In the future, I want to be good enough to be able to teach harp and see more people playing it. Skills may come from the bloodline, but the passion of doing something is discovered. So if you find out you have a passion for something, don’t drop it, because it only hurts you in the long run.

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代々、私の家族には音楽家の血が流れています。教会のオルガン奏者の大叔母、プロのベース奏者の父親、そして母親は歌い、兄弟は全員楽器を弾きます。私は、12歳でピアノを習い、中3に入りハープを始めました。当初はピアノが弾きたかったのですが、学校にハープ奏者が少なかったので仕方なくピアノを諦めてハープをやることに。乗り気ではなかったものの、気がつけば熱中していました。時間があればハープの練習をし、中３の終わりには、学校で才能が認められるくらいになりました。

将来はもっと上手になり、多くの人にハープの魅力を知ってもらいたいです。技術は遺伝でも、何かに熱中するハートは自分で見つけ出すことができます。諦めないで熱中し続けて欲しいです。

フィリップ・ミルボア、交換留学生、アメリカ