WHAT MADE ME LOVE MUSIC: HEIDI YENNEY, INSTRUMENTALIST

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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Though they were Aeronautical Engineers, my parents were both amateur singers. My mom sang in a group called “The Mother Singers” and dad sang in the Church choir.

When I was six, I got a violin for my birthday. Mom took me to hear my older sister play cello with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and I couldn’t wait until I could play with them. The Conductor would give me Xerox copies of the violin parts. That was really motivating. I was a tiny little kid and I enjoyed the positive attention I got from playing the violin.

There was also a wonderful piano trio in residence at Stanford that we would go listen to. Chamber music was my love from the very beginning.

Heidi Yenney, musician

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”