A 14-year-old girl from Battle Ground is using her piano skills to teach other kids how to play the instrument.
Loriellen Brittain has played the piano for the last eight years.
“(In) the summer of first grade, my dad mentioned the possibility of starting piano lessons because my older sister had started before I did, and we already knew the piano teacher, Lisa Hagelganz,” Brittain said. “I was interested in starting and have loved it ever since.”
Her instructor encouraged Brittain to teach other kids last summer, but at that time, the teenager didn’t feel “adequately prepared” for the task. That changed this year.
“This summer, (Hagelganz) mentioned it again and I felt ready. She’s really, really excited by the idea,” Brittain said.
Brittain recently started the recruitment process when she interviewed her first potential student last week. That student’s sister also wanted to take lessons, so Brittain now has two students, although she hopes to gain more.
She gets some of her inspiration from composer Ludovico Einaudi and pianist Jarrod Radnich.
“(Einaudi) is so good and I love his style,” Brittain said. “He’s like a contemporary composer and I love how all his music kind of takes me to a different world.”
In the future, Brittain hopes to attend a college with a strong music program, but also wants to keep teaching kids. She used to be part of a school band, but her current school — CAM Academy — doesn’t offer that.
Brittain’s mother, Angela, is pleased with the strides her daughter has taken.
“We’re really proud of her and she has demonstrated great perseverance through the years,” Angela said. “It’s a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning and you’re not quite getting the fruits of the labor that you hoped. That can be challenging for kids to stick with it through that, yet she did a great job, and now she’s so good.”
Angela said Brittain can open up a piece of music she hasn’t seen before and is able to read and play it.
“My husband and I just love that,” she said. “It’s like we get our own concerts almost daily listening to her. It’s a lot of fun.”
Besides playing the piano, Brittain has a love for drawing and painting, as well as an affinity for children, especially her younger niece and nephew. Her father, Ron, said she also loves animals and martial arts.
“She loves her students like family and that certainly comes across in all our interactions with her,” Angela said of her daughter.
Brittain’s website can be found online at loribrittain.godaddysites.com.
