Aleesha Palmer: Young musician reaches for the stars

In a recent Te Kura Media Studies assignment, Aleesha described how she’s developed her performance skills and has had to push past obstacles such as stage fright to develop her talent.

'I recently performed in Marlborough Stars in Your Eyes competition and am now getting stopped in the street with positive feedback from audience members - it's been fantastic!'

 My first experience singing karaoke at the age of seven showed me the path I wanted to take. The people at the Crow Tavern that night couldn’t see me behind the TV, but they sure could hear my voice powering through.

It wasn’t long until I joined the family band, KGP, at age ten. KGP are a top Marlborough band playing at many different venues all over the South Island.

It’s been great having my parents behind me every step of the way. Their support and advice has always helped me through some tough competitions.

For example, at age eleven, I secured a place in John Phillips Listen up Kids Choir. I later joined the Marlborough Music Circle run by Mike Stonely and began working on my performance skills.

I always found it a lot tougher performing in front of an audience of people my own age than an audience of adults.

As my performance skills progressed, I joined a band at the Vision College Rock School in Christchurch which brought me that extra bit of confidence on stage.

When my family moved back to Invercargill, I joined another band ‘Channel Four News Team’ and could finally participate in the Smoke Free Rock Quest. As a child, I would watch it on TV and wished I could be in high school just to be in it.

Soundquest was due to start in June and my new band ‘Fifty Foot Fall’ jumped at the chance. With only a week’s practice, our band placed third allowing us to contribute two original songs on the Sound Quest CD.

Now I’m home again in Marlborough tearing up the music scene and making a name for myself. I am learning the piano which will only expand my musical knowledge. I’m also looking at getting a new guitar and some new computer gear so I can record some demos to get some more gigs.

Read more about what Te Kura students are up to in our school magazine, Link Up.