Third generation Big Sur community member Grace Forrest began studying violin on her own initiative at 6 years old. A poster child for home-schooling, Grace heard the famous Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser on the radio when she was little, and liked it so much she asked her Mom, Torre, to take her to one of his concerts. “It was like nothing I’d ever seen, about 50 fiddlers all playing together. I loved that there were people in their 80’s playing as well as little kids, 4 or 5 years old. I said to my Mom, ‘this is what I want to do’.

While becoming even more inspired by his music camp in the Santa Cruz mountains, Grace pursued her classical music education in the Suzuki Method and brought self-motivation and genuine interest to the learning process. “My parents didn’t have any expectations, so I took many classes from lots of teachers, and there was no pressure to practice.”

Today she plays every single day as much as she can, loves it, and it shows. Poised, articulate, and lovely, Grace is a natural for the disciplined passion that the violin requires. And yet she’s not interested in a future as a performer as much as becoming a music teacher, in mastering the process of how the human brain learns music. She says,”I love music, it’s a part of me. Performing and being in the spotlight is not something I like. Working on camp, providing others with the chances I have had and maybe teaching is what is important to me.”

~Linda Rowland Jones, from Survision