Simon Barrett

Pianist and composer Deborah Offenhauser began taking piano lessons when she was five years old, though she had been playing for some time before then—begging her brothers to teach her everything they knew. After a visiting piano teacher mistook her piano playing for her older brother’s, she was promptly signed up for lessons and a lifelong love of music was born. She studied piano formally until she was fourteen, memorizing classical pieces for festivals and contests, and learning theory, scales, and chord progressions along the way. Her father ensured that she wouldn’t be too immersed in classicism, and she credits him for her exposure to more contemporary musical numbers . When Deborah’s piano teacher relocated, her formal lessons ended but her love for music continued unabated. While her older brothers had long left their childhood piano lessons in the past, she not only continued playing piano, but the classical organ, mandolin, 5-string banjo, guitar, and violin as well. She worked as an accompanis