I started taking piano lessons when I was seven years old. I fought against it (despite my love of music) and refused to practice. That is until my mom sent me to a new piano teacher who was as tough and obstinate as I was. It took a few years of patience on the part of my teacher and parents, but I finally began to soften toward the piano and began to practice. At age 10, my love for music inspired me to join the school’s orchestra as a violinist (I still have no idea how I was able to convince my parents that learning another instrument was a stellar idea considering my past with the piano.) By the end of high school, I had played piano for 12 years and had played in an orchestra for 8 years. Music was my outlet. I played to relax from my schoolwork and competitive sports. My piano teacher became a friend, one who even came to my high school graduation to support me. I am grateful that she inspired me to play piano by encouraging me to play music I loved. It started with movie soundtracks and morphed into all types of music. Now, my favorite composers are Hans Zimmer (movie soundtracks are still top tier) and Sergei Rachmaninoff. My favorite piano piece to play is Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43: Variation No. 18 and I play this piece frequently. I have not had easy access to a piano as a university student and have sometimes visited home simply to play piano. I had forgotten about the dusty old piano in my grandma’s basement, one that hasn’t been played, much less tuned, in two decades. We want to keep the piano in the family and I finally have a place where it can be played and admired. 
We do not know the entire history of this Emerson piano. We don’t know when it was build, but it was definitely before the 1940s. It’s known history started when my grandparents bought the piano in the 70s. It had already been used for decades and restored by the time they bought it. My grandparents had gone looking for a piano and were at a piano store when my grandma saw a piano sitting under a plastic sheet. After revealing the piano under restoration, my grandma became enamored and asked for the old piano. My grandma, mom, and aunts all learned to play the piano using this upright piano. My mom was the only one of the family to continue playing past her childhood and when she married my dad, she took the piano with her. It moved from her childhood home to her first home in Provo, then to Chicago, Park City, Heber, and back to Provo. My older sister also started learning to play on this piano. Music was constantly played in our household. By the time I was old enough to start taking lessons, my parents had bought a baby grand and the older piano was taken to my aunts house. It sat in disuse for a while before it was moved to my grandparents basement, where it has sat, collecting dust, for two decades. It is time for it to be played and admired again.

• YEAR 1920-1930
• MAKE Emerson Piano Company
• SERIAL NUMBER 118820
• FINISH Wood Finish
• CATEGORY CONTESTANT