If you’d asked me about ten years ago “Do you want to learn guitar?” I would probably have responded with “I guess.” Come to think of it that’s almost exactly what I said when my father, out of the blue, asked my brother and I that same question as we walked by Elite Music on Danforth Ave. in Toronto. Tasos at Elite knew exactly what we needed and hooked us up with an electric blue steel-string guitar. I can’t even remember the brand but that didn’t matter, it was electric blue and I was a 13 year old kid.

I didn’t know I wanted to be a musician until I started playing that guitar. I was convinced I was going to be a video game designer. Before that, an architect, and before that I boldly proclaimed to my parents that I wanted to be a fire-hydrant (my Serbian was not the best and I’m still regretting that slip-of-the-tongue to this day) But when I started playing guitar, I knew exactly what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a musician.

Now, to be honest, I really had no idea what it meant to be a musician. I imagined a guy who would grow out his hair for years, get up at noon every day, play a few songs in front of throngs of screaming fans, smash some hotel rooms, lather, rinse, repeat. To be fair, some of those things I did… I won’t say which ones, but what I didn’t know was that the term “musician”, or at least how I understand it, meant way more than that. Nowadays, I find myself spending my time teaching guitar and piano, editing audio/video recordings of performances, designing programs and posters for various concerts and events, coordinating a competitive music festival with scholarships and sponsors and the whole shebang (East York Music Festival) and performing everything from rock to classical music. Regardless of what it was, if it’s related to music I’m either doing it or want to do it!

To this day, I have sunk countless hours into my craft whether its practicing guitar or working on my audio editing chops. And the weirdest part about it? I have enjoyed every last bit of it. I am one of those people who actually enjoys practicing (strange, eh?) and seeing myself progress at pretty much anything I do. And who do I have to thank for this? Elite Music comes to mind among others. Had they not been located where they were, it’s hard to imagine finding music when I did.

So thank you Elite Music! Thanks for letting me sink an insane amount of time into something that I truly love and am happy to be pursuing every day.

-Neven Prostran

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www.eastyorkmusicfestival.com