Gifted musicians like Miranda Sanders, Isaac Kendell, and Parker Andriese have exceeded the standard for what it takes to be a musical prodigy. However, the road to greatness wasn’t as smooth as they play. They had to hit a few sharps and flats before reaching their finales.

Parker Andriese’s talent definitely dances to a different beat than the average musician. Parker has become a successful DJ and runs his own business through the music he provides.

His dad gave him the idea to become a DJ for his own parties after putting on several haunted houses during middle school and hosting his 16th birthday party.

“I tossed the idea around…and made it what it is today,” said Parker.

Parker started off by being the DJ for crowds of 50 to 100 at birthday parties, and other events that people would hire him out for. As time went on he became more serious with his DJ-ing and started doing his own events, sometimes with crowds up to 500 people or more. ”It started off as just a simple business where people would hire me out for doing their own events,” said Parker, “Then I bought my own turntable, and I started to do my own events, which is a lot more exciting, a lot more fun, and a lot more profitable.”

By watching other DJ’s, and by playing around with his turntables in his spare time, Parker has developed a unique musical talent that allows him to gather people together for parties and events.

“Everyone’s there; everyone’s having fun. It’s about bringing people together to have a good [safe] time,” said Parker.

Miranda Sanders, junior, is also a musical genius, though she has a more classical take. Miranda has been playing the violin for 10 years, and has loved it from day one. “I first got into violin, because my mom played…she gave me a toy violin for Christmas one time, and I would always play around with it, and one day she came up to me and said: ‘Hey do you want to play a real one?’…so she got me a real violin and started me in lessons. I kind of just loved it ever since.”

After realizing her love and talent for violin Miranda started pursuing it as a possible future career. “I really developed a passion for music…as I started getting more advanced, [I] realized I needed a more advanced teacher that could take me to the next level. I moved to my current teacher, Kathryn Everle, the associate concertmaster of the Utah symphony.”

Miranda’s passion for violin comes at a cost. She practices an average of three hours a day, has been through five teachers, and five violins, and sacrifices huge chunks of her summer to perfect her skill. Two years ago she won a contest, where after a nation wide application process 25 violinists were chosen to study at a two week summer camp at the University of Utah.

Miranda is so fine-tuned at playing violin that The Utah Symphony invited her to play in Lobby Fest, where performers play before the Utah Symphony’s concert in the lobby for about a half an hour before the show.

While Miranda has never composed a full song she does enjoy to, “fiddle around,” with writing music or adding her own flair to pieces. One day she would like to play for movie soundtracks or play in a symphony.

Moving up an octave, Isaac Kendell, junior, is an up-and-coming piano genius. This young pianist has been playing for eleven years, and has been literally reading sheet music since before he could read literature.

His most recent performance was playing the organ for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint’s Priesthood Choir. He played in front of nearly 15,000 people playing at a proficient difficulty. Some of his most prestigious performances include playing for a VIP event at the Conference Center for the LDS church.

Isaac plays the piano for at least an hour every day. “You have to learn to be dedicated and self-reliant,” said Isaac, “I don’t take piano lessons, so it is incumbent upon me to do my practicing, and to learn new things.”

He mostly enjoys playing for fun, and when he gets a new song that he loves to play, he will practice for at least a couple hours.

“It’s just kind of one of those things, I love it and I hate it, but it’s absolutely worth it. It teaches you a lot of things. Piano teaches you to be independent, and to work hard- and that’s probably the greatest thing you can take away from it,” Isaac said.

While the three prodigies have extremely different goals and aspirations they share one goal in common, to be the best at their music as possible.

All three are working hard in their own separate ways to achieve their goals, and to sacrifice part of their personal lives to achieve their success.