Journey of Hope showcased local heroes, local talent

August 19, 2021 · 0 Comments

By Rob Paul

Not everyone has the talent and confidence to get on stage and perform to a crowd of people.

That can be an impossible task for most, but there are those rare humans who live for that moment and thrive in it.

Few have the ability to look down from a stage and see faces staring back at them as they pour their heart and soul into a performance that ultimately leads to the crowd erupting from the passion they just witnessed.

That’s what Caledon’s Sylvia Kantorowicz aka Sylvia Kay was able to accomplish last Saturday when she performed as part of Bolton’s Journey of Hope in celebration of community, frontline workers, and local businesses.

Armed with a mic and keys, Kay performed alongside a band made up of her music teachers Lisa (guitar/backup vocals) and Nick Carione (drums) and cousin Anthony Kotarski (guitar). It was the biggest stage the 16-year-old has ever performed on.

“It definitely was a little nerve-racking,” she said. “But once we got up there, it was the most amazing thing. It was made easier by having the band with me, they’re like family.”

The chance to perform at the Journey of Hope was a surprise to Kay when she reached out to Bruno Vecchio, founder of VEC Entertainment, and he had an opportunity to perform live waiting for her.

“I met Bruno at church when I was 11, and the first time I played he was impressed, which was a massive compliment,” she says. “He talked to my parents after, and he said to give VEC a call when I turn 16—once I was a little older and my voice had developed.

“I called him about a month ago and he said, ‘I’m throwing a Hail Mary and I’m putting you on stage. I haven’t heard you sing in five years, but I’m putting you on stage, good luck.’ I was like, ‘Okay, no pressure.’ But it ended up going very well and that’s how I got thrown into Bolton’s Journey of Hope.”

Being so young, music has been a passion of Kay’s pretty much her entire life, but if not for her family moving to Caledon and her parents encouraging her to find a hobby, it might not have played out this way.

“Music has always been awesome to me, and it’s been my crutch for forever,” she said. “I’ve been playing for about 11 years; it’s been a good chunk of my life and I’ve been singing since I was about eight. It was actually my parents who pushed me to do it. They really wanted me when I was five to get into just any activity. I was so sick and tired of them pestering me about it and we were driving past INKey Music School (in Caledon East) after just moving here and I said that I wanted to play the piano just to shut them up!

“So, they put me in classes, and I hated it at first, but Lisa Carione—who has been my teacher for the last 10 years—was pretty adamant about learning things that I was passionate about, learning pop and stuff that’s fun as well as technique and that got me into it.”

Playing music for fun is one thing, but performing for others is a whole other animal. Kay credits her chance to perform at church over the years for helping her overcome the nerves that go hand-in-hand with the performing to an audience.

“Father Bob (Glynn)—who’s at St. John the Evangelist—was super supportive,” she said. “I was really young—I was 11 when I started playing at church—and I was petrified, I had the worst stage fright, but he was kind of the one that pushed me and gave me so many opportunities and I’m really grateful to him for that.”

Being a lover of music, Kay is always looking to expand her repertoire. For her, music is all about expression and that can come out in many different ways and sounds. Though piano is her main musical outlet, she doesn’t want to pigeonhole herself into one genre with one instrument.

“I definitely try to stay away from putting a specific label on myself,” she said. “I don’t want to be known as just a pop girl or just a country girl, I want that freedom to express how I feel the way I feel it needs to be expressed. I play the guitar—it’s not my main instrument, but I love to incorporate it into my music. I started violin at one point which is really hard and I kind of shied away from it, but I do want to go back to it because it’s a gorgeous instrument. It’s definitely one of the hardest, but I always want to learn more.”

The song-writing process for Kay isn’t like following the same formula over and over, because her music is so emotional and passionate, when she feels the need to express herself the song begins to come together.

“It’s definitely different every time. I don’t think I have one specific process, but it’s kind of just capturing a feeling and being a vessel for that emotion,” she said. “Sometimes it starts with a melody and sometimes it starts with a lyric, and it usually just pops into my head, and I escalate on that. I’ve written about 15 to 20 that I have in a binder at home. But it really is different every time—when they come to me, they come to me.”

Like most musicians, Kay has drawn inspiration from others. She credits Taylor Swift as her biggest influence and most aligns with singer/songwriters who are driven by emotion.

“I love pop and folk,” she said. “I love Taylor Swift, everyone that knows me pretty much knows I’m a big fan of hers, and I love Lauren Daigle. People that really connect to their music, I think that’s the thing that draws me to certain musicians, you can feel their connection to their music.”

As for how far Kay will go with music, she prefers not to spend too much time pondering that and would rather live in the moment.

Music is her getaway and to look at it through the lens of something she has to do would take away from her love of getting to do it.

“It’s more of a passion and I would love to minor in it, but I don’t think I’d major in it because I want to keep those two worlds separate and make sure I continue to enjoy music,” she said. “I don’t want anything leaked into my love for music and causing me to feel differently. Music is my life; I’d love to take it further. My main goal is to inspire people through my music and if I can do that, then I’d say I achieved everything I wanted to.”

The nurturing a musician needs to reach their potential is immeasurable, but Kay is thankful every day that she ended up in Caledon where she’s been able to see her true artistic potential thanks to the support she has received.

“This community is amazing,” she said. “I’ve lived in other cities before, but this is home, and it always will be. The people here are so nice and so supportive, I can’t imagine living anywhere else, the people here are amazing.”