Hannah-Rei

Many people write these in the 3rd person but since it's me that's writing it I won't pretend that it's not... I was destined to be a musician. My parents were playing music to me when I was in the womb and when I was little I was playing on the piano with my dad. He always wanted to be a professional musician, but times were different back then and I'm glad he hadn't been able to otherwise I wouldn't be here. So, when I was little I started piano lessons, but they quickly changed to singing lessons when my teacher realised I could sing. My elementary school teacher noticed my singing ability in music lessons ( I think I just sang louder than the other kids!) and things progressed from there. I was already taking dance lessons from three years old when I started stage school at 8. This is when I performed in lots of professional and amateur musical theatre all over the country. This was never the route I wanted to take. Since being tiny I dreamed of being a pop star! Not an original dream but I was determined to make it happen and still am. I started songwriting at twelve and there has rarely been a day since when I haven't written something. I stopped stage school at 16 and concentrated on my studies acheiving straight A's for both my GCSE's and A-Levels whilst singing in restaurants to earn a bit of money. Now I have just graduated from LIPA, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, with a BAHons in Music. This is where I recorded my first demo album working with various producers. Whilst in my third year I represented the university in a national songwriting competition, the MBF National Songwriting Competition, adjudicated by Guy Chambers, Cathy Dennis and Dave Stark, and WON! This is the achievement I am most proud of to date. My songwriting is so important to me and it is something I want to do for a living both for myself and other artists. This year I formed a band and have been gigging in Liverpool but I intend to play further afield this year without them and get my music "out there". I managed to get my song 'Over You' on iTunes this summer which certainly felt like another achievement!  Oh yes, and I got a 1st class honours degree in Music from LIPA...I worked my ass off to get that so I'm extremely proud of myself, as I should be!  My newest adventure is my moving to Bath where I'm going to be studying for a Masters in Songwriting at Bath-Spa Uni.  This is the first year this course has been run and it's the only one of its kind in the world so it's amazing to be undertaking something so exciting and it definitely feels like the beginning of great things to come...