Blues brings River Hill grad back to her roots
It was during an episode of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s television show “Two of a Kind” that Vanessa Collier first heard the saxophone.
“The dad pulled it out and started playing it,” recalled Collier, who was 9 at the time. “I fell in love with it. I begged my mom for a sax.”
Now 28, the River Hill High School graduate has traveled around the world playing her saxophone and singing the blues.
She has won numerous honors, most recently the Blues Foundation’s 2019 Blues Music Award for Instrumentalist of the Year-Horn.
On Sunday, she will be performing at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis.
In addition to touring, she also has honed a successful teaching career and travels from her home in Delaware weekly to teach private lessons in Howard County.
“I feel very rooted here,” Collier said, on a mild Monday afternoon while waiting for a student. “I love the arts community.”
While she fondly remembers attending 6:30 a.m. jazz band rehearsals as a sixthgrader –“they brightened my whole day” — she was seriously thinking about becoming a professional women’s basketball player and was a varsity player all four years at River Hill.
“It was a good learning experience for me.
I learned a lot of work ethics and pushing through when tired,” Collier said. “It has See COLLIER, page 5
“The dad pulled it out and started playing it,” recalled Collier, who was 9 at the time. “I fell in love with it. I begged my mom for a sax.”
Now 28, the River Hill High School graduate has traveled around the world playing her saxophone and singing the blues.
She has won numerous honors, most recently the Blues Foundation’s 2019 Blues Music Award for Instrumentalist of the Year-Horn.
On Sunday, she will be performing at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis.
In addition to touring, she also has honed a successful teaching career and travels from her home in Delaware weekly to teach private lessons in Howard County.
“I feel very rooted here,” Collier said, on a mild Monday afternoon while waiting for a student. “I love the arts community.”
While she fondly remembers attending 6:30 a.m. jazz band rehearsals as a sixthgrader –“they brightened my whole day” — she was seriously thinking about becoming a professional women’s basketball player and was a varsity player all four years at River Hill.
“It was a good learning experience for me.
I learned a lot of work ethics and pushing through when tired,” Collier said. “It has See COLLIER, page 5
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