Road Trip – A Musical Journey with Hope Garner

I’m starting to think that heaven is a place on earth. I’m seeing miracles unfold before my eyes with increasing regularity—through music.

About eight months ago, I began teaching piano to Hope Garner. Hope is fourteen years old. As with many of my students, I improvise in duet with her. From the outset, it was obvious to me that Hope is unusually free in her musical expressivity, ranging over the keyboard like it’s home. She'll play shimmering phrases high up in the treble one moment, and rumbling bass rhythms the next.

Hope loves singing, too. And she writes her own songs. Her mom, Claire, is a singer and guitar player. Hope has a wide range of musical tastes-—she loves Phoebe Snow, Stevie Wonder, Hannah Montana, Cake, Bjork and Brian Duncan. When she grows up, Hope wants to be a singer (and a cook and cleaner).

Hope likes to refer to herself as having “Up’s Syndrome.” As I've realized, it’s true. She is a success story made possible by love, faith and modern medicine. Her first three months were spent at Bay State Hospital in Springfield, MA. She was born with five holes in her heart--congenital disorders such as this are common to children with Down’s Syndrome. Claire explained how, when babies are born with genetic disorders, it takes awhile to know what they’ll be capable of. Despite her rocky beginnings, by the time Hope was in kindergarten, she knew the alphabet and could spell her name. With the incredible love and support that Claire gives her, Hope has developed into the girl that comes and sits with me at the piano.

Hope’s musical journey is central to her life’s journey. And so are road trips. Hope loves to go on excursions with her mom. They’ll get in the car (their current vehicle—a Jeep—is dubbed the “J-unit”), play CD's, and travel around the East Coast, staying at bed and breakfasts or friends' or family.

I recently recorded a duet with Hope and played it back to her. I asked her what she’d like to name it. We agreed that “Road Trip” was an apt title. As you’ll hear, this piece is both a musical journey and reflective of Hope's life. We sat and listened to the piece on my stereo. I asked her what she thought of it. “It makes me cry,” she said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear her. "Why?" I asked. “Because it’s amazing.”

Here is our duet, “Road Trip”