By Rebecca Vikari
When Jentry Fairbanks was just 3 years old, her mother died, leaving her father to raise five young girls by himself. He wanted to raise his daughters in a home where music was prevalent, so he decided to give the girls piano lessons. Jentry took lessons from the time she was 5, and now as a student at BYU, has decided to make music her major.
'At the end of high school, I decided that I really love music, and that''s what I wanted to do,' said Fairbanks, who is a junior from Orem, studying piano performance. 'I''ve definitely gained a greater love for it. It''s amazing how much I''ve grown to love music, and my dad has helped me with that.'
Fairbanks recently auditioned with the Utah Valley Symphony for an opportunity to play with them next spring. She had been working on her piano piece for the past year and performed first in a preliminary round and then was called back for another judging round. Her younger sister Stacy accompanied her by playing the orchestra part, and ultimately Fairbanks was selected to join the Utah Valley Symphony. She has spent the last year perfecting the concerto titled 'Hungarian Fantasy' by Liszt, which is about 15 minutes long. As well as needing to be perfectly performed, it also has to be completely memorized.
'It was a long, hard process,' said Dr. Irene Peery-Fox, Fairbank''s'' piano teacher. 'It took a long time because it''s a long piece, and we had to work on musicality, technique and memorization, but the finished product is great.'
Her father, David Fairbanks, said his two daughters had been trying to play with the symphony for the past five years.
'I told them that patience pays off,' Fairbanks said. 'You get discouraged year after year after year, but they didn''t stop. Jentry and Stacy kept going.'
Both the girls practice for at least four hours every day.
'It''s hard work, period,' Jentry Fairbanks said. 'It''s intense. It''s hard. You''re being critiqued and you have to go back and fix it. If you take a day off, you''ll get behind, but it is really rewarding.'
Her sister agreed that one has to be disciplined in order to get an opportunity like this.
'If you continue working at something, even if you don''t see the benefits right off, it will come,' she said. 'It helps me in school, it helps me prioritize because I have so little time. It helps me learn patience.'
Peery-Fox said something that sets Jentry Fairbanks apart from other students is her tenacity, discipline and ability to stick with it on a daily basis.
'Out of all my BYU students, she is the only one who continues non-stop to take piano lessons, during breaks, the summer and Christmas holidays. She never stops,' Peery-Fox said. 'She just works and works. Quite often, those are the students that will be the most successful.'
Even though Fairbanks spent most of her life without a mother, it is apparent to everyone that she comes from an amazing family and a father that loves her.
'I''m just amazed that this father took them to the best teachers and made sure that they always look beautiful and seek for the top goals,' Dr. Peery-Fox said. 'He''s been an amazing mother and father to those girls, and I''m amazed by that.'
Fairbanks'' father always wanted his daughters to do well and keep music as an important part in their home.
'Having the right teachers has really paid off,' David Fairbanks said. 'It''s made a big difference.'