{"id":2150,"date":"2017-08-13T20:11:30","date_gmt":"2017-08-13T20:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2017-08-13T20:15:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-13T20:15:58","slug":"day-stevie-wonder-changed-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/day-stevie-wonder-changed-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Day Stevie Wonder changed my life"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 4 intense days in a rehearsal studio\u00a0in Burbank, CA, at around 8pm on August 13, 2007<\/strong>, Stevie Wonder<\/a> changed my life. Before that time, I had built a career as a\u00a0professional pianist and accompanist, working and supporting myself (which in itself is a\u00a0beautiful thing) at the local level in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was actively\u00a0performing and teaching music in a wide variety of styles, including classical, pop, jazz, R&B, musical theater and gospel. The\u00a0week before Stevie Wonder changed my life, I had been\u00a0accompanying the Oakland Symphony Chorus<\/a> for their performance of\u00a0Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, playing in a few cover bands at local bars and small venues, for a couple of Bay Area churches (primarily Beebe Memorial<\/a> in Oakland and Third\u00a0Baptist<\/a> in San Francisco), and for small private events. Apparently, it was a perfect cocktail for preparing me for what was to come.<\/p>\n

When I was told that I got the job (keyboardist \/ background singer in Stevie’s touring band), I burst into tears, just like Miss America (not even kidding).\u00a0Suddenly, I went from local musician to\u00a0the biggest gig in the world, with my favorite artist. Stevie\u00a0Wonder\u00a0is the consummate singer \/ pianist \/ songwriter \/ producer, and I was given the opportunity to share the stage with him and learn from him directly.\u00a0Just the thought of it\u00a0fills my heart with both gratitude and humility.<\/p>\n

Today, I celebrate\u00a010 years since that beautiful day. I toured with Stevie for several years, all over the world. My experience working with Stevie prepared me for countless\u00a0new\u00a0opportunities, including my work on the Arsenio Hall Show and with Beyonc\u00e9.<\/p>\n

I’m eternally grateful to you, Stevie, for believing in me, and for trusting me to accompany you\u00a0for so many years. You are my hero and I love you.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Stevie Wonder!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 4 intense days in a rehearsal studio\u00a0in Burbank, CA, at around 8pm on August 13, 2007, Stevie Wonder changed my life. Before that time, I had built a career as a\u00a0professional pianist and accompanist, working and supporting myself (which in itself is a\u00a0beautiful thing) at the local level in the San Francisco Bay Area. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,137,36,6,4,18,22],"tags":[188,212,110,38,213,50,53,82],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arseniohall","category-beyonce","category-blog","category-front-page","category-news","category-stevie-wonder","category-victoria-theodore","tag-pianist","tag-10-year-work-anniversary","tag-grateful","tag-jazz","tag-legend","tag-music","tag-stevie-wonder","tag-victoria-theodore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2152,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriatheodore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}