Christine Sky (b. 23 Feb 1974) was always musically oriented. She grew up in Kennywood and took piano lessons from the time she was 4 years old. When she was in the 4th grade she expressed a strong interest in playing the flute. On her 10th birthday in 1984 she was gifted a flute her mom had found at a garage sale. Christine immediately set off on her own, learning how to play as many notes as she could remember. She jumped right into 5th grade beginning band where she quickly rose to the top of the section. As she made her way through junior high she continued to excel and was first chair of all the honor bands she participated in. By high school, she had decided that her dream was to major in flute performance. She had never been more sure of something in her life. She made first chair of the All-Regional Honor Band which was comprised of 9 states in 1989 and 1991, gaining her lots of recognition among her peers.
Christine easily gained a scholarship at several schools but because of living expenses and family situations she could only go to Kennywood University, which she began after graduating from Kennywood High School in 1992. She was excited to move onto college and learn even more about how to play well. Dr. LaBello, the flute teacher at the time, was already 6 years into what the faculty and several students eventually called "The 11 Year Reign of Evil." Christine was warned about Dr. LaBello by several people and had heard lots of bad things about her, especially her ability to sweet-talk and manipulate students and staff, but she shrugged them off, hoping that they were wrong. The Fall 1992 semester began and Christine was thrown into college life.
She met Dr. LaBello and thought she seemed nice enough. However, very early into the semester, Christine began to perceive things she didn't like. Dr. LaBello taught theory and ear training and would often talk down to her students as if they didn't know anything. Knowing that this was no way to learn, Christine transferred to different classes. When Dr. LaBello questioned her, she made up an excuse that she had another class in the way. However, this treatment of students and anger at dropping her class carried over into Christine's lessons. She would go in feeling confident, only to get yelled at and picked apart at every detail. She wanted so much to perform for others, totally capable of doing so, but was denied because she "didn't have the right attitude." Christine could tell that the only reason she couldn't play was because she wasn't favored. She then made the mistake of calling Dr. LaBello on it. From that point on, Christine felt punished for things she didn't even do wrong. This was a disaster. Music, which had always been fun, now felt like a punishment. The other flute students agreed but silently went forward, convinced that this was how college was supposed to be.
There came a time in the middle of the semester that Christine felt like giving up all hope. Her spirits had been crushed and her desire to play had left her. However, unlike all of the other flute students, she was not okay with this. She did not accept that this was what college was like. With hardly anyone, certainly none of the flute studio on her side, Christine felt like she had nowhere to go but away. She had heard things about one particular professor who had the gift of listening and in a last effort just days before she was about to walk to the registrar's office to end music for good, she quietly tiptoed down the dark hallway, her head hanging low, major change papers in hand, and made her way to the office of someone she had only seen a couple times and certainly didn't know well.
She stood stone-faced and silent outside the door, gathering the courage to knock. Before she could even rise her arm, however, she heard a low, soft voice say "Come in!" It seemed like a whisper but it was loud and clear through the closed door. Her hands trembling, biting on her lip, Christine slowly opened the door and crept in. After quickly shutting it behind her, she looked up at the tall and majestic figure of Dr. Sorela, the oboe professor, a well-seasoned teacher and one who was always ready to listen with open ears.
"Christine, please have a seat," he said, gesturing warmly to a soft and padded crimson bench next to the door.
There was an unmistakable air of calm and peace in the room and his soft voice further calmed Christine, who collapsed into the warmth of the chair, ready to burst into tears at any moment, less from nervousness now and more from sheer relief that what others had said about him being a gifted listener were correct. She bit her lip hard as she tried in vain to hold tears back. She was beginning to get choked up and her throat hurt with every breath. She slowly looked up and met her wide and teary blue eyes with Dr. Sorela's deep and dark brown eyes which seemed to glow with warmth and compassion.
"I know why you are here, Christine," Dr. Sorela began, slowly scooting his chair out from his desk and around the table where he made reeds. "Talk when you feel ready..."
It was a long time before Christine spoke, not so much because she was scared of what to say, but because she didn't want to lose her composure. However, when a lone tear fell down her rosy cheek she realized that nothing could stop her now. With a deep breath she again looked up at Dr. Sorela, her vision blurred with her tears.
"I... I don't know," she began, not sure how to start her train of thoughts. Finally, she just started talking, pausing only for a sniffle or to wipe her eyes. "Dr. LaBello hates me and it sucks to be a flute student here because it feels like s-she's punishing those she doesn't like by not letting them *sniff* do anything as if she wants to make us quit!" Dr. Sorela said nothing but had slowly reached out his long arm, gracefully handing Christine a tissue. She took it and began to dab at her eyes and nose. Still crying heavily, she continued. "I'm not having any fun here! They all warned be about her but I thought they were exaggerating! N-now I see that they were... they were being nice about her! She's made me hate something I've loved my whole life and I have no options to go away from here with my scholarship and housing and stuff... I just don't see any other way out of this disaster except to give up music completely and d-do s-something else!"
As she said the words that she had thought so often but not actually uttered, she began to cry harder. The thought of giving up music was unbearably painful to her and something that she had never ever considered doing. She hadn't even thought of what she would do other than music. Her life for the past 8 years had been nothing but music and it was her dream to become a professional flute player and a professor. All she could see in her mind was her flute next to a hole of black vacancy. She buried her head in her hands and wept bitterly, not knowing what sort of thing Dr. Sorela would say. Would he tell her to deal with it? Would he side with LaBello? What advice would he give her? Sure that she had said all she needed, she calmed down and looked longingly at Dr. Sorela, hoping that his response would make her feel better, for she couldn't feel much worse at that point.
Dr. Sorela waited for a moment, his face in ponder, his hand stroking his chin as he thought about what she had said. Unknown to her, he was seeing and hearing all kinds of messages from Osai, perceiving miles past what Christine had just told him. Finally he sat up and spoke, slowly and with pauses every few words.
"My dear Christine! Music is your life! Do not give up what you stand for because of one bad person. I perceive that without music you are lost. Fear not, for I am on your side. Miss LaBello has a bad aura about her. Your soul is pure and your ability to see past her lies is a gift to be celebrated, not a cursing to be punished. I too see past her and know that one day she will have to answer for what she has done. Music should not be a punishment and she has made it so."
He sat up a bit straighter and looked around before deciding how to say what he was obviously about to tell her next.
"If flute is no longer fun but music is too great a part of your life to give up and abandon..." He paused for a long time, looking up towards the ceiling and then back at Christine, a smile coming to his face, "Why not switch instruments? Why not... oboe?"
As soon as he said this, the fog of hopelessness seemed to evaporate around her. For the first time in weeks, she saw a light at the end of the tunnel instead of the darkness of uncertainty and punishment she had seen so much.
"...Oboe?" she whispered, raising her eyebrows. "You really think I could play it?"
"Of course!" Dr. Sorela said, smiling, "It really is quite similar to flute. Some of the fingering are the same! They both read concert pitch and you've got the intuition and musicality to learn quickly. I have full confidence in you, should you choose to leave Miss LaBello's studio and walk into mine."
Christine sat there for quite a while. To her it felt like hours but it was only a few minutes. She was faced with another big decision. She knew already that she could not continue with Dr. LaBello but had newfound hope in the extreme likelihood that she would not have to give up music afterall. She had been a major flute player for a long time with a promising flute career and this decision would change it drastically. However, after she weighed and flipped over every option she had at that point she realized that she really had nothing to lose. The flute studio was an awful place to be and students were leaving right and left, leaving only those too afraid to stand up to the harsh treatment or completely deceived by her ways. The way she saw it she was either leaving music for good and possibly never returning again or staying in music but learning a different and less commonly played instrument but one equally as beautiful and lovely.
With a deep breath as she realized that her life would never ever be the same after this point, she turned to Dr. Sorela, her eyes wide but no longer filled with tears, and with a slight hint of a smile and a shakiness in her voice of both fear and excitement, stated her decision.
"I want to give the oboe a try. It can only go up from here, right?"
Upon saying those words, she immediately knew that she had made the right decision. Any shadow of doubt that had lingered was completely gone and everything around her looked brighter. She ended up staying in Dr. Sorela's office for a very long time, getting her first lecture about the oboe and how it worked. She left his office with a student oboe of her own complete with a couple handmade reeds to get her started and instructions on what to do. She wasn't even afraid as she went to the registrar's office to officially change everything around and certainly wasn't afraid the next day to march right up to Dr. LaBello's office and declare that she was changing instruments and leaving the flute studio, overriding anything she would try to do to fail her out of school or at least the music program.
"I'm not under your charge anymore. I'm one of Dr. Sorela's students now," Christine proclaimed with these last words, shutting the door of Dr. LaBello's office and thus shutting the door on her flute career. She didn't care. There was nothing LaBello could do about it, because Dr. Sorela was one of the only people that could not be swayed by her cunning words and therefore had no more power or influence on Christine's life. This school may have lost a great flute player, Christine thought to herself, but it just gained a mighty good oboist!
From that day on, Christine Sky could be found in the practice rooms or in Dr. Sorela's office almost daily as she worked hard to learn and master an entirely new instrument. True to his words, she learned quickly and had finally found that encouragement and fun she always believed should exist even in college. She took every opportunity to rub it in to LaBello's face that she didn't make her quit music like she had so many others. Christine graduated 5 years later in 1997, just in time to see Dr. LaBello's reign of evil come to an end as finally a new department chair came in and did not fall for her ways. Suddenly everything LaBello had even done was thrown into the eye of the whole department and when proof of embezzlement had finally come out, she was taken out of the school by the police, never to return. Christine, along with so many others, worked tirelessly interviewing all of the new candidates, making sure whoever would replace her would be worthy and never treat students that way again. She rejoiced along with several of the faculty and students as Dr. Blaze Kye was hired to replace Dr. LaBello.
After graduation, Christine went to grad school at University of Kaytue and then went on to receive a PhD in oboe performance at the Tevernid School of Music in 2002. She married her good friend, flutist Royston Johnson, in 2000. She then spent the next few years teaching oboe at Clerval University in Viratown, Denzeltonia, taking some time off to have and raise her two daughters and one son, Lisa, Benjamin, and Ashley. In 2008, Christine Sky Johnson received the job of her dreams and became the oboe professor at Ricktoria Landon University. Her husband became the flute professor there in 2010.
Today, Dr. Sky Johnson still talks highly of Dr. Sorela, calling him a father and mentor. He even became her and her children's godfather. She has tried to become that same compassionate person that he was for her so many years earlier, telling discouraged students to visit her. She has never forgotten her experiences from the day she "walked into that office a flute player and walked out an oboe player."
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