Dana Price is getting worked up about the prevalence of the double major at Tufts. "People ask me, 'Wait, you're only majoring in music?'" She throws up her hands and shakes her head in exasperation. "Don't they get it? I live and breathe music!"
For this Tufts senior, music isn't a secondary interest - it is her all-consuming passion. A pianist, violinist, singer and composer, Price has explored a diverse range of musical fields that today make her something of a one-woman musical powerhouse.
From expounding on the wonders of the prepared piano (placing objects on the soundboard of the piano for musical effect) to nonchalantly mentioning the date of her professional debut (she was 17 years old), Price is never unwilling to wax poetic about a new style of music.
Price began her study of classical piano at age four and picked up the violin six years later. As she blithely puts it, "You know, I won a bunch of piano competitions when I was little, went to All-State, that kind of thing."
In her freshman year of high school, Price turned to homeschooling so she could practice more, winning piano competitions by playing the major works of Beethoven and Schubert. By her junior year of high school, Price returned to public school at the prestigious Alexander Dreyfoos School of the Arts near her home in Hobe Sound, Florida. One year later, she made her professional debut playing Beethoven's "Romance in F Major" with Florida's St. Lucie Chorale.
Despite her numerous musical accomplishments throughout her childhood, Price felt that her college years should not be dedicated wholly to music. "I didn't think it was a legitimate thing to do." She picked Tufts for its location in Boston, a city with rich musical vibrancy, but her intended academic focus was engineering. However, she soon found that to be "too structured" and turned to political science.
What happened next changed the course of Price's life. She was in a major car accident and had to leave Tufts for a semester for rehabilitation and therapy. Price describes the experience as a major turning point, an event that pushed her to rethink the role of music in her life. "There was a piano in the hospital where I went for rehab, and it hurt so much to not be able to play it. I had to do music somehow."
While in the hospital, Price started singing to give herself a musical outlet that didn't require physical mobility. She also realized that music was where her passion lay and that it was the career she needed to pursue.
"It sounds really corny, but [music] helps your soul. It's everything I am," Price explains. She also notes, "It took a lot to accept the fact that I might not make a lot of money doing it." Price's current post-graduation plan is to support herself by teaching music lessons and by gigging. She has also considered pursuing a degree in library science to work in a music library.
Along with teaching piano and violin lessons, taking private jazz violin lessons, and performing in three Tufts music ensembles (one classical, one jazz and one New Music improvisational), Price is also a developing composer. Working with Professor John McDonald, she composes and performs pieces for solo piano, rock/pop/jazz songs, and is currently working on a musical score for a play.
Price recently had a song entitled, "Colors," accepted for the Jumbo Audio Project. Price describes her compositional career as "kind of a new thing," and she says with a rueful smile, "I wish I had more time to work on it all."
Price's musical journey to this point has run the gamut from child classical prodigy to experimental jazz artist. Her freshman year of college, Price auditioned for the New England Conservatory of Music.
While she was ultimately rejected, Price views the experience as fortunate. "It's forced me to be more active in my own musical education. It's been much more rewarding for me to seek [music] out on my own. At [the New England Conservatory], I would have been spoon-fed [music]."
Price doesn't so much absorb music in small spoonfuls as much as she inhales it. She counts herself attending between two and four concerts a week, ranging from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to the experimental jazz stylings of Tim Berne. For Dana Price, life's direction is clear.
With a shrug and a simple and a simple smile, she sums it all up: "I really just want to play and compose and sing."
