Country singer-songwriter Jaclyn Kenyon splits her time between performing shows in Nashville and teaching music in Orillia.
OrilliaMatters caught up with her while she was teaching students at the Orillia Music Centre.
"It's been an amazing outlet for me to take what I've learned in music and be able to help students be the best they can," Kenyon said.
She first visited and performed in the area at the Boots and Hearts Music Festivan in Oro-Medonte in 2021 as an emerging artist. The concert was held with restrictions as the COVID-19 pandemic was waning.
Last July, she opened for Nickelback at the Ottawa Bluesfest.
Kenyon is a self-taught singer, piano and guitar player who started her career in music after graduating high school in Burlington. She has spent the past 10 years in Nashville, performing shows and working for Warner Music Group writing music for television and movies.
She also won the reality TV show Banded: The Musician Competition on AXS TV that opened doors for her in Nashville, including a recording contract with her band, Starland. It also allowed her to get a work visa in the United Sates.
But after a decade of living in Nashville, Kenyon was feeling homesick. Her parents moved to Orillia in 2023, and that's what brought her to town.
"I wanted to come home and reconnect with them and myself, so now I go back and forth," she said.
Teaching music has always been a part of Kenyon's journey. She taught at Capstone Music in Burlington. Then she taught students online through the pandemic and now she's teaching in-person lessons in Orillia at St. Paul's Centre three days a week.
"I've always loved teaching and I love kids," she said.
Teaching music in Orillia has enriched her life.
“The students have re-lit my passion for music again. In Nashville, you get used to doing the same thing over and over again and you forget how music can change people," she said.
Kenyon has brought songwriting to her students as well as vocal, guitar and piano lessons, and said she's surprised at how well the students take to songwriting — so much so, she is now offering songwriting group lessons, and it's changing the lives of students, too.
"One girl came into the studio crying, and she wrote this song and I saw her whole energy change to where she is happy, and she said to me, 'I can find better friends now.'"
In the foundations of songwriting master class, students are writing their own tunes and Kenyon is using her experience from Nashville and Warner to help them record and post music to Spotify or YouTube.
"Students are opening up in ways that were so beautiful with things going on at school, at home, with friends. A lot of these kids are serious songwriters and want to grow and not just write a song for fun," she said.
Kenyon now has 25 students.
Gemma, 12, and Maddie Cox, 9, of Orillia, are students and both have their eyes set on careers in the performing arts. Gemma has been in the children's chorus of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at King's Wharf Theatre in Penetanguishene. Maddie has already had a couple of acting roles, including in the Lifetime Channel movie Christmas in the Spotlight, which aired in 2024.
"I've learned how to get my voice higher, I've learned how to get my voice lower, and I've learned how to belt (project sound) better," said Gemma.
Maddie said, "I love learning new songs. I love belting and I'm learning more about belting."
The Grade 4 student at Samuel de Champlain Catholic Elementary School in Orillia said she also likes writing her own music.
Kenyon's oldest student is in her 70s and her youngest student, Selena Albarrasin, is six.
"Miss Jaclyn is the best at teaching me my high notes and low notes," said Albarrasin. "She teaches me techniques so that the sound comes out right and I don’t hurt my vocal chords. Miss Jaclyn makes me laugh and makes the class really enjoyable."
More information can be found on the Orillia Music Centre website.
