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Well we all kind of started at the same time.
Different techniques you would not see a classical player do.
Our Mom would stick us between her knees
and she would make us play.
I'll mostly write the song or arrange the song...depending on what it is.
I guess your personality goes right in to what you're playing too.
The Bunnell's could be a major force
in the entertainment industry.
Even though she didn't play she always knew when we made a mistake. Always.
She'd say we can do two things at once: cry and play the violin. Like you are so talented!
She just had this vision for the children to be
a musical quintet. She always said that the trials in
our lives would one day help us to influence other people.
I met the Bunnell's for the first time
in September I'd actually been aware of them before that
because a few years ago we went to the ballet
and they were featured with the ballet company
on stage and I remember thinking "wow.
A sibling quintet." Well we all kind of started at the
same time like Keren was 5, and Ross was 2.
Well no, Ross wasn't born yet.
Yeah, the three of us started together and then Cara when she was three, she started.
And then Ross when he was 2 he started. And it just got added along...
Most of the Bunnell's start on little baby violins and the idea is to sort of have that Mommy and Me
experience where a parent comes with the child to the Suzuki class
gets a violin in hand like the child has and then they can go home and practice
with the child.
I remember crying a lot. Our Mom would stick us between her knees
and she would make us play. And she would hold our hand like super tight and she would
be like "your wrist needs to be out and your fingers need to go down like castle tops"
Or she would bribe us a little like "if you finish this next song I'll give you a cookie!"
She was not a musician herself she just had this vision for the children to be
a musical quintet and so you really have to admire
her tenacity for taking all five children to Suzuki
and then sticking with them over years and years
of training and private lessons. Our teacher was...
our mom would sit in on all of our lessons...and our teacher would be like "do this and
do this and do this"
and our mom would do that and more. Because she was creative
she was a teacher by nature. The result is incredibly magical
and I continue to be surprised by the depth of their musicianship,
particularly Corrie who is the
arranger and composer for the group. When you listen
to the arrangements that they play and hear what Corrie has done to make them
not only fit her
brothers and sisters but fit her
style imagination what'll happen is just magical.
We knew he had cancer and we knew he was sick but it didn't really...
the option of him ever dying wasn't there it was just kinda...you know.
You're kids you don't really think about that kinda thing. Being older we thought about it
like Keren and I (Kimberly) knew it was going on but still Mom was there
she was like the buffer so she would choose what she told us
about it. I just remember in August of 2007
like three or four months before he died they told us that he only had a few
more months
and that he wasn't gonna make it. And they brought him home, we'd take care of him we'd
make sure he had enough blankets we'd feed him.
She had such a clear vision for all of us
and she was always telling us what her vision was and so
we all knew exactly what we were supposed to do.
And then she went in in January and we found out that she had colon cancer.
She was always telling us what she wanted us to do. But we didn't believe she was gonna die.
I mean as soon as Mom passed away we all obviously looked to Keren.
Cara and Ross were under
18 so I had legal guardianship of them. It was just kind of like
what happened and we didn't really
think about this. People now are even like "my gosh you guys are so amazing"
we're like,
we are? They make you realize
how much life is to be lived they are such an inspiration
I mean people are always like why don't you reject God? Like oh my gosh he took
both your parents away but it's just
you don't think about that you just keep trusting
keep moving forward and it's your life, you don't really think about it.
It was so right on the mark, I'm sure she's up there smiling
watching this whole thing unfold as it is.
Like we said after three years okay we're gonna perform together and do this as a
family for another three years
and then we'll reevaluate it from there and see if it's something we want to continue doing
and set another goal.