Eve's Summer PowerChick IS
Tania Elizabeth:
Accomplished Fiddler, Entrepreneur, and Fiery Feminist (all at age 15!)
Vitals:
- Unorthodox Beginnings: Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1983, Tania's mom spent eight of her nine pregnant months backpacking and camping.
- Powerful Female Genes: Tania's mother was a single parent and went back to school when Tania was an infant to get her Master's in Women's Studies.
- School Daze: Tania switched schools 8 times until grade 9, when she decided that she had had enough of formal learning.
- Musical Roots: Beginning at age three, Tania studied classical fiddle and has studied with renown fiddlers Dean Marshall, Daniel Lapp and Natalie MacMaster. She was a member of the world-famous "Calgary Fiddlers" at age 9.
- Be All That You Can Be: She is the winner of numerous awards including the 1997 Kamloops Youth Fiddle Award, and Best Senior Fiddle in the 1998 Victoria Arts Festival. She was also selected to compete at the provincial level in the British Columbia classical chamber ensemble category in 1999.
- Risky Venture: After she quit school, Ms. Elizabeth stopped waiting to be discovered and started her own recording company, Swan Sisters productions. She owns and runs the business completely by herself, arranging potential gigs, organizing promotional material and updating her web site.
- A Travelling Woman: She currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia, although she tours the U.S. and Canada regularly with her band.
- Latest News: Tania will release her second album next year which like her first album, Something (1998), will be arranged, produced and financed by her.
- Other Occupations: Aside from teaching music to 20 students, Tania has recently taken up weight lifting, painting, and dance.
- Feminist Ideals: She insists that to define feminism is to make the movement less potent, but she does admit that feminism has played a large role in everything that she has ever done.
- Major Beefs: Tania believes that current pop acts like the Spice Girls and Britney Spears are detrimental to young girls' self-esteem and self-image. Furthermore, she believes that TV is a waste of time. Without it, people would be more productive and could "get to know themselves better (as opposed to getting to know the personality of their favourite character)."
- Great Goal: The solution to the impact of pop culture on girls, Tania wrote, can be found in positive role models: "I think these girls need better role models: independent, strong, real women. That is one of the things I want to do in my career. If I can help one girl realize that her worth is not determined by whether or not she fits into a size 6, then my life will be worth it."
- Personal Gratitude: Music, she said, has afforded her the opportunity to travel, make money and express herself as well as boost her self-esteem (always a nice bonus!). She is happier than ever runnning her own business and could not imagine herself doing anything else.
Visit Tania's Web Site:
http://www.swansisters.bc.ca or e-mail her at tania@swansisters.bc.ca
