Since the third grade, senior Claudia Stedt began playing piano, but her classical training did not start until the end of eighth grade. Having played piano now for close to ten years, moving to a classical style proved no small change.

“When I started taking classical lessons I had to start right from the beginning. I literally had to start from scratch and it was really difficult,” Stedt said.

Today, Stedt has significantly improved her skills over the past four years. On the weekends, Stedt studies piano at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston as a student in their prep program.

Every Saturday and occasional Sunday, Stedt is at the conservatory for the full day where she takes various classes and lessons.

Additionally, she also participates in a multitude of workshops at the school, where she gets together with other students. They play pieces for the group in order to get advice from the peers and conservatory professors.

Recitals are also a large part of the students’ musical endeavors and she performs in a variety of those throughout the year as well.

Through the New England Conservatory of Music, Stedt has gotten some incredible opportunities to share her talents. Most recently, Stedt went on a piano tour for two weeks in Europe with a few other students from the conservatory. She had the chance to perform in venues, mainly in Austria and Hungary, for paying audiences.

“We performed in some really cool places like Mozart’s old house and also in some master classes in Vienna and Budapest,” Stedt said.

To Stedt, piano is not just a hobby, but music, in general, is an extremely important and valued part of her life.

“I think for me, music is pretty universal. Especially classical music, in my opinion, is just so powerful and literally could make you feel any emotion ever,” Stedt said.

Stedt also enjoys how rewarding music is and how putting in work and effort into learning a piece gives joy and satisfaction once complete.

“Working overtime on all these little specific pieces of something, you don’t really get to hear the overall picture. But after you’ve been doing it long enough and you actually learn a piece and you put it together, it’s just really really satisfying,” Stedt said.

In college, Stedt hopes to continue studying music.