“ Throughout my youth , my goal has always been to become a full-time musician . At a high school leadership conference in Montreal , I jumped on stage for the first time to jam with a band at a sugar shack and was enamoured with the experience of creating new music instead of just reading it . Shortly thereafter , I started finding different rock bands and musicians to jam with to expand my musical horizons as I continued to study classical violin ,” recalls Yeh , “ I also began teaching violin and performing semi-professionally .”
Yeh made the decision to pursue a higher education in business in hopes of acquiring practical life skills to support herself financially during the budding years of her music career . This choice came in an apt moment as she had also suffered a devastating ulnar nerve injury in her left arm , which rendered her unable to play the violin for over a year . Developing cubital tunnel syndrome from excessive playing combined with poor technique . Yeh was left in too much pain to even consider playing .
“ I have since developed a much greater understanding of proper posture and skeletal alignment through my own personal research , as well as through the wonderful advice of various health experts ,” explains Yeh . “ The changes I made were small and would probably go unnoticed by most , and yet , were so significant that they allowed me to play again without pain .”
By 2003 , Yeh ’ s arm had healed and , with her technique modified , she moved from her hometown of Edmonton to Toronto to start her corporate career and establish herself as a musician in the city . She also married her University sweetheart and drummer , Trevor Maybee , in 2006 . Together they built a recording studio and led several bands including their own original group , Violet Fusion , which released its first EP in 2012 .
The highlight of their career came in 2014 when , in March , Violet Fusion travelled to the Northwest Territories on an 11-day educational outreach tour sponsored by the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre . Later that year , in September , they presented two feature shows at Theatre Aurora in Ontario . It was an apex moment for the happy couple , but tragically , their journey together would not go much further . Yeh ’ s husband was diagnosed with cancer the following October , in 2015 , and passed away on December 23rd of that same year .
“ Following the loss of my husband , I disbanded Violet Fusion . Playing music became both comforting and horribly painful . In the following months , as I drowned in the deepest days of grief , I was laid off from my day job , lost my violin in a house fire ( from which I narrowly escaped with my life ), and had my identity stolen ,” recounts Yeh .
Her first year alone , Yeh was in shock . So overcome and numbed with grief , she shifted from day to day , void not only of joy but also of other strong primal emotions , such as anger and fear . Her battle with anxiety and depression began and she found herself overwhelmed nightly by the vast darkness of a world asleep ; her loneliness painfully accentuated in the silence . For many months , she would practice