Arizona piano teacher helps Irish teen Freya Terris make one-handed music history
Irish pianist Freya Terris
PHOENIX - Piano has always been a part of Freya Terris' life.
"The first thing I remember really doing was playing Defying Gravity from Wicked with my piano teacher ... I was about six," Terris said.
Two years ago, everything changed.
"It might be fair to say I love playing the piano a little bit too much," Terris said.
Those years of piano caught up. The bone in her right hand had eroded, impacting her nerves and leading to surgery. Terris was left unable to play her beloved instrument with her right hand.
"Where more people would maybe accept that setback and stop playing and quit the piano, she did the opposite," said Rory Dowse, a piano teacher based in north Phoenix. Through online lessons across a seven-hour time difference, the Irish teen worked with her Arizona-based music teacher, Rory Dowse.
Dig deeper:
She spent more than a year re-learning how to play piano using only her left hand.
"It's very difficult," Dowse said. "We're used to using the right hand to play melody and left-hand accompaniment with some bits in between. And all of a sudden, one hand is taking on the demands of what you could do with two."
Terris overcame all odds, even writing to the world's leading piano grading entity, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, asking for a grade eight exam program for a one-handed pianist. Until then, the highest grade program for a one-handed player was grade five.
In its nearly 140-year history, Terris became the first one-handed pianist to pass grade 8.
"Exams aren’t the be all and end all with music," Terris said. "Nobody makes music to take an exam and get a classification out of it. But at the same time, it’s a useful thing to have. It’s nice to say you’ve got it and even in the face of applying to university and things like that."
Dowse knew she would achieve her goal.
"I knew she would do it," Dowse said. "I was really pleased that she had made that massive progress for herself."
What's next:
As for her next act, Terris has no plans for a final curtain.
"I hopefully will keep studying music at university, just keep doing what I’m doing," Terris said. "Keep enjoying what I’m doing.