Birthday: February 6, 1972
Method of Creation: #3- I needed someone to fulfill a certain position and as I thought about it, bits and pieces of him came to mind. His name comes from method #2.
The Young Kenyon Nihael
Creation Story:
Kenyon Nihael... Where do I begin... Hardly ever has someone of such immediate prominence come about so quickly! First off, he was born of my mind at the bus stop while I was waiting to go home. It was overcast and really cold, being at the earliest late January. After the huge, dark, unsettling sub story that S. R. Sorela had accidentally caused himself, he took up residency in my mind and still hasn't left. The more I thought about him, the more he changed from a still somewhat nebulous idea to a really concrete person. It then became necessary that, being an oboe player of the K-Phil, there would need to be another oboe player to go along with him, since there are two parts. I had no idea where I'd go with this but it was kind of in my mind. Kenyon changed that very suddenly.
As I was waiting for the bus this really odd thought hit me- a really random but strong vision and perception of a smiling man missing two of his top teeth. The more I thought about this, the more I went along with odd anatomy. I moved along and weird things about his body started forming in my mind... like the fact that his right kneecap was totally removed and he now wears a knee brace at all times. I do know where that part came from and leave it to me to have my people all be... unique... in one way or another. I don't think I have a single normal person! Everyone's got something either wrong with them or really rare and powerful.
As I was thinking about it all, a man took shape. The more I thought, the more things automatically fell into place. I had myself the personage of the 2nd oboe in the K-Phil, a man who was no doubt a good friend of Dr. Sorela. His last name came first, long before his first name. I had a friend named Nicholas that I met when I went to Europe in 2007 and already paid homage to him by naming one of my oboe players, Kirby Law, after him (because I saw him playing Kirby on the plane!). After thinking about it I decided to attribute another person after him, so I took his name, Nicholas, and changed it into something more... foreign. It took a few seconds for me to play through things in my head but once it clicked it was a total done deal. Nicholas became Nihael. Great, now I had a Dr. Nihael! I decided he should be of Lisjovalan heritage, based off a last name like that... either that or Raellian... I went home and played around on the Mii app for the Wii and he ended up looking more Kiillaanian than anything so I don't really know where his last name historically came from but I'm still going with Lisjovalan. Raellian got ruled out with his looks.
So by now I had his last name and a little bit of his appearance, complete with some unique anatomy that I would go in depth on later. I actually wrote down his last name as I thought of it on a notecard, which I actually have a picture of!
The bottom left is where I wrote Nihael the first time, next to a sketch of the first measure of this piece, which I like for obvious reasons. The top left was some Runescape stuff I wrote on this scrap of paper first and up on the top right was his name the first time I wrote it out after discovering his first name.So... armed with this information I set off to find a good first name. I decided to trust the fact that the right name would come along when the time was right and that it would be really obvious what it would be. That would be revealed to me as I was at my band concert on January 29th, 2011. I was sitting in one of the front rows listening to the honor band that always plays with us on that concert when the name suddenly hit me. His name would be Kenyon. Kenyon Quentin to be more precise. How my mind got there I have no idea but it was there, clear as day. That's good! Kenyon Nihael! Now I could move forward with his personality and how he came to be and all that good stuff that I spend so much of my time focusing on.
I decided that in order to have... uh... a.... uh... missing kneecap.... that there would have to be something more going on than just a random sports injury. This and those two silly missing teeth that started this all had to be related somehow... Armed with my ability to create all kinds of weird, linked birth defects, I decided that he had a genetic condition that causes half of the body to be underdeveloped. The hardest hit areas were his knee and his teeth. Starting from the bottom up, his ankle is missing a bone or muscle or something and is therefore prone to breaking so he has a small plate in there. His kneecap was always badly deformed and for whatever reason that I don't understand because I'm not a doctor they ended up having to remove the whole darn thing which would put him in a brace for the rest of his life. He doesn't care. His right hip is a little wonky but holding its own so far... He's missing a rib or two and has misshaped vertebrae which has resulted in some pretty nasty scoliosis. His spine was fused at like 17 so it's really hard to tell that he was once bending in half. His shoulder is decent, but he has some problem with his collarbone. His elbow was on the verge of being a problem but they told him it only would be if he broke it in a very specific way but that the odds of that were like nothing. Well, he did break it, and exactly in that way (he fell out of a tree... oops) and had to have some surgery to fix. He can straighten his arm... it just makes a really loud crack when he does. His wrist was missing something too and he has a plate in there to help it. And, finally, all of the teeth on just the right side of his mouth are all very deformed. His front teeth grew in but the two teeth next to it never made it and he has refused dentures, saying the gap makes him special. All of his teeth on the right side are capped and many of them have had to be built up to match the left side. Whew! What a novel that was! OK we're done with that now.
With his unique anatomy explained it was time for his personality! He has a PhD in Oboe Performance and although he does not teach at a university he works for the city music program as the auditions manager and teaches lessons in "the dungeon"- the basement practice rooms of the KSB Office. He has held these positions since he was called and hired as the 2nd oboe of the K-Phil in 2002. In addition to that he is also principal oboe of the KSB and Pathreeah Opera Orchestra and is first on call for freelance work in the area. He is a very energetic and outgoing man and a perfect opposite in many ways from Dr. Sorela. The two of them ended up being not just colleagues but VERY close friends. As it turns out, Dr. Nihael and his family often go to Dr. Sorela's house for dinner and evening fun and the two of them play duets and things together all the time. They even hold small concerts, with Airi Sorela playing piano behind them. Kenyon always finds the humor in everything and his light spirits are comparable to Lesko Diamond, but a little mellower and darker. Both Dr. Nihael and Dr. Sorela make their own reeds and are masters of their craft, often getting together to make some while talking about everything. Probably one of the funnest things about Dr. Nihael is when he goes to the campus of KU and almost dances his way into Dr. Sorela's office for whatever reasons. He has been known to just come in to say hello and then leave. According to Dr. Sorela, Kenyon has "that rare aura of love and deep understanding that so few have."
Suddenly, Kenyon Nihael had gone from a person I needed to fulfill a simple position to an extremely prominent man within 2 weeks. Even still I enjoy the little stories of he and Dr. Sorela that form in my head. He became official and down on paper on February 6, 2011, and I gave him the age of 39 because that is one of my very good friend's age. He has lived all over and has quite a little story to tell!
A [VERY] Short Musical Bio:
Kenyon Quentin Nihael is the oldest of 5. Next after him is his sister, Shara, twin brothers Mischa and Sascha, and his other sister Jeanne. He was born in Aislin, PA, and lived there until he was 4 when the family moved to the small, Keòen-speaking Dahhod suburb of Yofreya. He lived here for a year before moving to Kiillaana's capital, Tevernid. It was here that he spent much of his youth. On one field trip in 1979, 7-year-old Kenyon was treated to the Royal Tevernid Orchestra, as they performed a small, child-friendly concert followed by some spotlights of all the instruments. (Had he been there a year earlier or later and he would have seen Dr. Sorela there but at that time he was still doing thesis studies in Jadali.) He was absolutely captivated by the oboe and wanted to play it ever since. He made the decision then and there, at 7 years old, to become a musician.
By the time he was in 5th grade he was able to be in band but much to his dismay the school he attended did not offer oboe until 7th grade as it was "very difficult to play." Kenyon settled for flute, figuring that the fingerings would be much alike and they were both pitched in C. He played this until 7th grade when he could finally switch to his favorite instrument. He practiced it to the sunset and back and had a very good teacher.
His family again moved, this time back to Aislin, in 1985 where Kenyon was integrated into a very good music program. He excelled here and became the top of his game not just in his city but statewide and even regional as well. He graduated from high school in 1990 and went to UBT for a year and then UK2 for the 3 remaining years for his undergrad and then to TSOM for his masters and PhD in performance. He taught for a while at Greystone University before getting a personal call inviting him to audition for the 2nd oboe spot of the K-Phil. Unknown to him, Dr. Sorela was a Man of Osai (he did know that) and had foreseen the two of them playing together and had personally contacted him asking him to audition. This he did and was accepted and he was given positions in the KSB office which he still holds to this day.
He is married to the beautiful Katya Tovich and they have five children- Carey, Justine, Johannes, Alicia, and Nathan. Carey is getting ready to graduate high school and start school at KU where he is following in his father's footsteps with a degree in oboe performance. The whole family is very musical and they just this week moved into their new house in the new Greenhill subdivision (where Lesko Diamond and Eric Latham moved into), which is by now becoming a neighborhood with a demographic of musicians and has been dubbed "Musicians' Cove."
OK that wasn't that short. There's just so much to say! Luckily, all that brings us up to speed with how far Dr. Nihael has come in just 1 month. The only thing I didn't cover was their friendship with the Matthews family but that isn't too important now. Basically I had a dream about this young boy and his family came about and it ended up that his family and the Nihael family were close friends and the Matthews family convinced the Nihael family to move into Greenhill and the both did, so they were never in separate neighborhoods for more than like 3 weeks. Kirill Matthews, this kid's dad, is a musician of some kind but I have to work that out still. That's something different.
Since I have almost exhausted everything, here are 5 fun facts that I always end these posts with:
1. Kenyon often subs for Dr. Sorela's history classes on the rare occasions when he is out of town.
2. He is left handed. With a wrist and arm as messed up as his, I would be too!
3. Despite living in Tevernid for a significant part of his life, his accent is more like you'd find in Kalta. He doesn't even know why this is. It just adds to his charm.
4. He refers to all of his students and fellow oboe players as "Obbykins."
5. His new house that they just built and moved into has an indoor small concert stage and seating for about 100 people. There will be lots of small concerts and lessons going on in the next few decades!
I decided that in order to have... uh... a.... uh... missing kneecap.... that there would have to be something more going on than just a random sports injury. This and those two silly missing teeth that started this all had to be related somehow... Armed with my ability to create all kinds of weird, linked birth defects, I decided that he had a genetic condition that causes half of the body to be underdeveloped. The hardest hit areas were his knee and his teeth. Starting from the bottom up, his ankle is missing a bone or muscle or something and is therefore prone to breaking so he has a small plate in there. His kneecap was always badly deformed and for whatever reason that I don't understand because I'm not a doctor they ended up having to remove the whole darn thing which would put him in a brace for the rest of his life. He doesn't care. His right hip is a little wonky but holding its own so far... He's missing a rib or two and has misshaped vertebrae which has resulted in some pretty nasty scoliosis. His spine was fused at like 17 so it's really hard to tell that he was once bending in half. His shoulder is decent, but he has some problem with his collarbone. His elbow was on the verge of being a problem but they told him it only would be if he broke it in a very specific way but that the odds of that were like nothing. Well, he did break it, and exactly in that way (he fell out of a tree... oops) and had to have some surgery to fix. He can straighten his arm... it just makes a really loud crack when he does. His wrist was missing something too and he has a plate in there to help it. And, finally, all of the teeth on just the right side of his mouth are all very deformed. His front teeth grew in but the two teeth next to it never made it and he has refused dentures, saying the gap makes him special. All of his teeth on the right side are capped and many of them have had to be built up to match the left side. Whew! What a novel that was! OK we're done with that now.
With his unique anatomy explained it was time for his personality! He has a PhD in Oboe Performance and although he does not teach at a university he works for the city music program as the auditions manager and teaches lessons in "the dungeon"- the basement practice rooms of the KSB Office. He has held these positions since he was called and hired as the 2nd oboe of the K-Phil in 2002. In addition to that he is also principal oboe of the KSB and Pathreeah Opera Orchestra and is first on call for freelance work in the area. He is a very energetic and outgoing man and a perfect opposite in many ways from Dr. Sorela. The two of them ended up being not just colleagues but VERY close friends. As it turns out, Dr. Nihael and his family often go to Dr. Sorela's house for dinner and evening fun and the two of them play duets and things together all the time. They even hold small concerts, with Airi Sorela playing piano behind them. Kenyon always finds the humor in everything and his light spirits are comparable to Lesko Diamond, but a little mellower and darker. Both Dr. Nihael and Dr. Sorela make their own reeds and are masters of their craft, often getting together to make some while talking about everything. Probably one of the funnest things about Dr. Nihael is when he goes to the campus of KU and almost dances his way into Dr. Sorela's office for whatever reasons. He has been known to just come in to say hello and then leave. According to Dr. Sorela, Kenyon has "that rare aura of love and deep understanding that so few have."
Suddenly, Kenyon Nihael had gone from a person I needed to fulfill a simple position to an extremely prominent man within 2 weeks. Even still I enjoy the little stories of he and Dr. Sorela that form in my head. He became official and down on paper on February 6, 2011, and I gave him the age of 39 because that is one of my very good friend's age. He has lived all over and has quite a little story to tell!
A [VERY] Short Musical Bio:
Kenyon Quentin Nihael is the oldest of 5. Next after him is his sister, Shara, twin brothers Mischa and Sascha, and his other sister Jeanne. He was born in Aislin, PA, and lived there until he was 4 when the family moved to the small, Keòen-speaking Dahhod suburb of Yofreya. He lived here for a year before moving to Kiillaana's capital, Tevernid. It was here that he spent much of his youth. On one field trip in 1979, 7-year-old Kenyon was treated to the Royal Tevernid Orchestra, as they performed a small, child-friendly concert followed by some spotlights of all the instruments. (Had he been there a year earlier or later and he would have seen Dr. Sorela there but at that time he was still doing thesis studies in Jadali.) He was absolutely captivated by the oboe and wanted to play it ever since. He made the decision then and there, at 7 years old, to become a musician.
By the time he was in 5th grade he was able to be in band but much to his dismay the school he attended did not offer oboe until 7th grade as it was "very difficult to play." Kenyon settled for flute, figuring that the fingerings would be much alike and they were both pitched in C. He played this until 7th grade when he could finally switch to his favorite instrument. He practiced it to the sunset and back and had a very good teacher.
His family again moved, this time back to Aislin, in 1985 where Kenyon was integrated into a very good music program. He excelled here and became the top of his game not just in his city but statewide and even regional as well. He graduated from high school in 1990 and went to UBT for a year and then UK2 for the 3 remaining years for his undergrad and then to TSOM for his masters and PhD in performance. He taught for a while at Greystone University before getting a personal call inviting him to audition for the 2nd oboe spot of the K-Phil. Unknown to him, Dr. Sorela was a Man of Osai (he did know that) and had foreseen the two of them playing together and had personally contacted him asking him to audition. This he did and was accepted and he was given positions in the KSB office which he still holds to this day.
He is married to the beautiful Katya Tovich and they have five children- Carey, Justine, Johannes, Alicia, and Nathan. Carey is getting ready to graduate high school and start school at KU where he is following in his father's footsteps with a degree in oboe performance. The whole family is very musical and they just this week moved into their new house in the new Greenhill subdivision (where Lesko Diamond and Eric Latham moved into), which is by now becoming a neighborhood with a demographic of musicians and has been dubbed "Musicians' Cove."
OK that wasn't that short. There's just so much to say! Luckily, all that brings us up to speed with how far Dr. Nihael has come in just 1 month. The only thing I didn't cover was their friendship with the Matthews family but that isn't too important now. Basically I had a dream about this young boy and his family came about and it ended up that his family and the Nihael family were close friends and the Matthews family convinced the Nihael family to move into Greenhill and the both did, so they were never in separate neighborhoods for more than like 3 weeks. Kirill Matthews, this kid's dad, is a musician of some kind but I have to work that out still. That's something different.
Since I have almost exhausted everything, here are 5 fun facts that I always end these posts with:
1. Kenyon often subs for Dr. Sorela's history classes on the rare occasions when he is out of town.
2. He is left handed. With a wrist and arm as messed up as his, I would be too!
3. Despite living in Tevernid for a significant part of his life, his accent is more like you'd find in Kalta. He doesn't even know why this is. It just adds to his charm.
4. He refers to all of his students and fellow oboe players as "Obbykins."
5. His new house that they just built and moved into has an indoor small concert stage and seating for about 100 people. There will be lots of small concerts and lessons going on in the next few decades!
No comments:
Post a Comment