Cassie Cox
Kim Wallace brings harmony to Decatur County and several counties nearby through sharing her vocal and piano skills.
Wallace has always felt inspiration from music. She started playing piano at the age of 5. She played oboe in band and sang in the top choir at North Decatur High School. After high school, she attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music for two years in pursuit of a major in vocal performance. Unfortunately, her singing abilities were muted for a while when she moved to Indianapolis. There she worked for a photography company doing jobs such as children’s school portraits.
At the change of the millenium, she and her husband Joe Wallace moved to St. Paul to be closer to her family. Recently upon moving and finding a church, she was asked to play piano as the church pianist had become ill. Ever since then, Wallace has been the pianist for the St. Paul United Methodist Church. She enjoys this position because it allows her to play piano for others once a week. It also enables her to play piano and sing for other churches due to her church having an early service.
In 2004, Wallace quit commuting to her job in Indianapolis to be a stay-at-home mother to her new daughter Claire. This is what opened the door for her musical gifts to expand to teaching others. She had been asked by friends to teach them piano lessons in the past, but she never had time with driving so far to work everyday. After Claire was born, a fellow Saint Paul neighbor asked if Wallace could teach their child how to play piano. Soon after, Wallace’s mother’s friend was turning 50 and wished to play piano for her birthday with Wallace’s help. It wasn’t long before Wallace kept getting phone calls for lesson requests. She began teaching voice lessons along with piano lessons.
Wallace has never really advertised her lessons, which she teaches in 30 to 60 minute intervals at her home Monday through Friday from around 3 to 6 p.m. She simply recieves interested students through word of mouth. Wallace has students singing and playing piano from Saint Paul, Greensburg, Waldron, Shelbyville, Fairland, Manilla, and Rushville. Her students range in ages, levels of experience and reasons for attending her lessons. Some just want to further their knowledge of voice and piano. The older students use Wallace’s lessons for working on songs they need to learn for contests, try-outs, or stage performances. Wallace recently accompanied a few of her students, as well as a couple North Decatur students at the District Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) on Feb. 13 and again at the State contest on Feb. 20 for those who advanced.
“I love working with students one on one. Giving lessons has helped me find my passion for music again. I was inspired by my teachers during my youth and want to pass that along to my students and help them find their own way in music,” Wallace said of the nine voice and thirteen piano lessons she is currently teaching every week.
She also finds time to share her talents in the community. She sings for various organizations and clubs in her area such as Kiwanis, especially around Christmastime. She has been in charge of a youth band at the Ray’s Crossing Christian Union Church that later switched to Faith Community Church’s band. The band, “On Fire With Desire”, met once a week and consisted of drums, guitars, bass, keyboard and several singers. Wallace taught all the teenage members how to read, play and perform the music.
In 2007 and again in 2008, she played Sister Hubert in Shelby County Players’ “Nunsense”. Since then, she continues to be active in stage and theater. She and a fellow “nun” from Nunsense put together a show at the Strand in Shelbyville called “My Crazy Family Christmas”. She also helped set up a gospel theater series. On Super Bowl weekend, she performed in Shelby County Players’ “Divas Goes to Hollywood”, for which she had a solo and was the vocal director.
Wallace does not lose herself in the music long enough to forget about her family. She and husband Joe now have two daughters. Claire is five years old and Avery is one. She loves weekend family time and scrapbooking all the precious moments when she isn’t giving lessons or working at the Waldron Post Office.
“Music is a gift you can take with you, even if it’s just for personal reasons. I hope my students and people in general will learn to use music for the enrichment and enjoyment of others,” Wallace described her role as a voice and piano teacher, second to her role as a mother.
