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Student
mixes love of animals with talent for music Elisa Williams wakes up early Sunday morning to get ready to go to a church she has never been to. But today she will be the organist.
Her room is a mess because she has no time to clean. Clothes are scattered across the floor and her desk is covered in papers. In a clear space are photographs of her and some of her best friends — the birds, snakes and owls she rehabilitated near her home in Maryland. But right now it is not about those friends. That part of her life is on hold until she goes back home for the summer. Right now it is about her music. Williams, a sophomore church music major with an organ and voice emphasis, has had little time to pursue her love for animals while at TCU. Zoology, the major she would want for animal rehabilitation, is not offered at TCU and she has no time for biology or psychology classes. She instead chose to develop her skills on the organ and is the only undergraduate in her major. She has played the organ since she was in seventh grade and also plays piano, clarinet and oboe. Williams originally had no desire to learn to play the organ, but she won a piano competition with a prize of free organ lessons for a year. “I didn’t mean to begin playing,” she said. “It was just a fluke. But I liked it and stuck with it.” She said her interest in animals began her freshman year of high school. A friend volunteered at a nature center for his Eagle Scout project and the woman he worked with brought a falcon to his ceremony.
“I met the falcon and I liked the falcon,” Williams said. “A couple (of) days later I started volunteering at the nature center.” She talks to the animals she works with and treats them with the same respect as she might any person. “Some of the best conversations I have had have been with a blind owl,” she said. “I can talk my problems out and the owl will just look at me.” Joseph Butler, associate professor of music, instructs Williams with the organ and said he has high hopes for Williams to move her way up toward a career in a large church. He said she has only played oboe for about three years and she is principal oboe in the TCU Wind Symphony and the TCU Symphony Orchestra. “She is very talented and has a lot of natural ability,” he said. Butler said though there are only about six oboists at TCU, he believes Williams is the best. “She is getting all the solos in the orchestra,” he said. Williams blushes at the idea of being considered musically talented. “People are always saying that I really pick up on music fast and I am a good musician,” she said. “It feels odd for me to agree because I don’t want to sound arrogant.” Marna Jane Williams, a sophomore biology major, said the first time she met Elisa Williams she knew nothing about her music abilities. “Every time I went to her room, I would learn about a new instrument she could play,” Marna Jane Williams said. “It is not something she screams and shouts about. You just have to get to know her and you will slowly find out more and more about her talents.” Although music is one of Elisa Williams’ loves, her love for animals is equal. “I have always liked music and animals together,” she said. “I like to do both and cannot imagine life without either aspect. It would just feel empty.” While at home in Maryland, she volunteered at a nature center for six years and trained falcons. When a falcon is missing a wing or has any other ailment that keeps them from being able to survive in the wild, Williams and others ‘train them to the fist’ or domesticate them to sit on a human’s fist. “It usually
involves much blood shedding,” Elisa Williams said. “It
takes a lot of discipline.” “One time someone brought me a bird whose wing was gnarled up,” she said. “I gave him water and kept him warm to bring him back to consciousness, then took him to a humane society. He was a lot happier when he left.” Williams is known as an animal lover in Jarvis, but outside the Jarvis walls people know her mostly by her music ability. She spends about three hours a day practicing organ, accompanies about 10 vocalists and plays at recitals and churches. “I work for half the people I know,” she said. People she has never even met will call her and ask her to play for them. She also is learning vocals and sings in a praise band. “I am not used to thinking of myself as a vocalist,” she said. “I just joined the praise band at (church) and now suddenly people are saying ‘Oh, yeah, she is the girl who sings.’” Williams said when she considers her future, she can never choose between music and her love of animals. “I am a musician for about nine months out of the year then for three months I am out and about covered in mud and playing with turtles,” Williams said, laughing. “It is definitely two different things.” She wants to find some way to have both her loves as part of her life. “I don’t know how unrealistic it is, but that is what I have always seen myself doing - the church music and then coming home and feeding things and taking care of owls,” she said. “I am not entirely sure what I am going to do about that, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.” Meanwhile, at TCU she has her music. Back in Maryland, the owls will need to wait until summer comes to can catch up on old times. Erin
LaMourie |
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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
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