Travers Vasek recently accepted a full scholarship to study piano performance at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins this Fall. The former Wimberley student and grandson of Trudy Spring Allison, attended local schools from Wimberley Baptist daycare through his sophomore year at Wimberley High School before his family moved to Colorado.
In the sixth grade, while living in Wimberley, Travers discovered the guitar, learning it from his father during the COVID-19 years. As soon as the isolation restrictions were lifted, he was the first on the town square busking for exposure and tips,” his mother Abby said. “For his ninth grade Christmas we gave him a keyboard. He immediately took to it, and by that I mean, he took 30 seconds to fumble around the keys and then something clicked. You could see it, and then he played the last song we were listening to in the car.”
Travers said it was with the keyboard that he “truly fell in love. I played every day, as much as possible, and found a piano teacher to teach me how to read sheet music.”
That piano teacher was Marc Haygood, who until recently lived in Woodcreek. Coincidentally, Marc and his wife Laura, both retired educators, also moved to Colorado.
“He was the closest thing to a prodigy that I’ve ever witnessed,” Haygood told Travers’ mother, Abby.
At their first meeting, Travers played Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata that he’d picked out by ear and translated to the keyboard, without knowing how to read sheet music.
Haygood remembers being very surprised and asked him, “Did you pick that out by ear?” When he said yes, “we immediately focused on music literacy, which he learned very quickly.”
Within a month, Travers had learned all three of the piece’s movements. Later they would focus on music theory and technique.
Within a few short months, it was time for Haygood’s students to perform at their Spring Recital. Travers began learning “Für Elise,” one of Beethoven's most popular compositions. He quickly mastered the sonata’s A section, and then progressed very quickly to the B and C sections that not everyone learns.
“Ironically,” Travers said, “I forgot my sheets for my first piano recital but didn’t sweat it, and didn’t miss a beat.”
“As a person, Travers was genteel and delightful with excellent study habits,” Haygood recalls.
Six months into his sophomore year his family moved to a remote area near Chama, NM where he had more time on his hands to focus, but without anyone to collaborate with musically.
“At the tail end of my sophomore year we moved up the road to Pagosa Springs where my trajectory skyrocketed. I found the Rocky Mountain School of Music and Mrs. Venita took me under her wing,” Travers said.
A classically-trained pianist, Venita, upon hearing Travers play, had her piano delivered to his home so that he could use it to learn.
Next he joined the Pagosa Springs high school jazz band and sang with the choir. “I volunteered as the school’s piano accompaniment for special performances and joined the musical theater program. Since then I’ve stayed busy playing all over Pagosa Springs for special events and preparing for college music auditions,” he said.
In May, he gave a recital in Pagosa Springs in preparation for his audition to study piano performance at Colorado State University.
Following his audition, he was offered and accepted a full scholarship to study piano performance at CSU in Ft. Collins this fall.
“My goals in the future are to go to a conservatory of music like Juilliard and play all around the world. I also plan to get my doctorate in piano because I love to teach and share the joy of music with others,” he said.
