Piano teacher finds key to excitement up in the clouds

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

This message greets the visitors to the Figaro Academy of Music Web site. And perhaps nobody embraces the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe message more than the owner of the academy herself, North Lake’s piano instructor Jennifer Weaver.

Ideally, the business card of her dreams should list orchestra conductor, teacher, singer, gardener, museum tour guide and jet fighter pilot. But instead, Weaver is already living the reality of her dream today in professions as diverse as creating the magic of music in concert halls to riding on the power of a jet fighter into the sky.

Boldness may be the key word to describe her professions as an orchestra conductor and jet fighter pilot. Both demand a combination of great skills, good judgments, impeccable precision and high confidence.

Conducting a full orchestra in front of experienced musicians playing a variety of musical instruments is not for the faint-hearted.

“It is very unnerving,” said Weaver, who conducts the Cedar Hill Community Orchestra. “The conductor is responsible for anything that goes wrong in an orchestra, but is the only one without an instrument.”

Weaver’s interest in music began when her parents bought her a piano when she was nine. She has since harbored a dream to become a musician but she realized that an interest alone does not make her a musician. In her freshman year in the mid-1990s, she recalled how terrified she was when her music professor Mark Hettle challenged her to compete against him. But that challenge turned her into a musician today.

Hettle, a Mountain View College music professor, still remembers what he told her. “In the music world, students have to be prepared to compete against professionals at all levels of experience. They just have to be the best to get the job,” Hettle said.

After earning a degree in piano pedagogy and performance in 1999 from the University of Texas in Arlington, Weaver set her sights on studying orchestra conducting at Southern Methodist University (SMU). However, all odds were against her because SMU accepts only one graduate student in conducting every year, and she had no previous conducting background.

To make her dream a reality, Weaver approached the world-famous conductor Andrew Litton of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and requested an evaluation of her audition piece. Because of her persistence, Litton finally agreed to accept her as a student, only the second time he has done so in his career.

The thorough preparation won her the coveted spot at SMU that year, where Weaver studied under the conductor of Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Paul Phillips.

“There was nothing else I could have done to be more prepared. That kind of confidence gave me freedom and without the freedom I couldn’t do well,” Weaver said.

Ironically, Weaver has not always been as bold as her current professions profess.

Halfway through her second year of graduate school, she suffered from a terrible car accident that left her incapacitated for months and forced her to postpone her study at SMU for one year. The accident prompted Weaver to look at life from a different perspective.

“Every day I live past it, I feel it as a bonus. It changed me a lot. I have grown a lot as a musician and as a person,” said the 2003 SMU graduate.

Her husband, Felipe Ramirez, an acclaimed musician with an international reputation, noticed that since the accident, Weaver has become more outgoing and willing to take risks.

“She has been more confident of herself and more sociable,” said the Spain-born pianist. “She takes more chances and likes to live her life to the fullest.”

Since summer 2005, Weaver has joined the Cold War Air Museum in Lancaster as a maintenance flight pilot. The museum features an arsenal of jet fighters and helicopters from the former Soviet Union, many of which are flyable and airworthy.

Weaver has fl own a variety of jet fighters, ranging from the 500-mph advanced trainers such as Aero Vodochody L-29 Delfin and L-39 Albatros, to the short take-off and landing (STOL) CH 701.

Dallas County Constable R.L. Skinner, who often co-piloted the aircraft with Weaver, was impressed with her unusual talent for flying the craft.

“She does very well with the aircrafts. She absolutely can be the best in everything she does,” said the former North Lake student, who attended the college in the early 1980s.

North Lake Music Director Dr. Francis Osentowski, who has witnessed her flight, said, “It’s an exciting event when she takes off in the jet. The whole airport staff lines the runways to watch when she flies.”

To Weaver, piloting skills are just a natural extension of musical instincts. Just like for pianists, having outstanding coordination and anticipation instincts are indispensable skills for pilots.

“As a pilot, you can’t put your plane anywhere your mind hasn’t already been,” said Weaver.

Her boldness to take on different opportunities has realized many dreams. Yet, Weaver has more dreams to chase within her seven working-day weeks. Besides conducting, teaching, singing, gardening and flying, she will begin a new dream of rebuilding imported pre-World War German grand pianos this summer.

To which her former teacher at SMU, Dr. Phillips, said, “I wish her the best in her endeavors.”