Becky Seward is a gifted pianist who plays for Saint John Vianney and has been the accompanist for the Pleasant Valley High School choirs for three years.
Seward was born in Peoria, Illinois. She started playing piano when she was nine years old and fell in love with it. In 1970, her family moved to Bettendorf, and she graduated from Bettendorf High School in the class of 1974. In high school, she was approached by the high school band director to join because they needed a mallet player.
After graduating high school, Seward attended Black Hawk College and then Saint Ambrose University as a music and education major. All throughout college she honed and improved her skills a piano player and as an educator. Due to the fact that Seward was unable to find a pianist job post college, she instead did a lot of clerical work.
However, in 1986, a position as an accompanist opened up at Pleasant Valley High school. Seward spent a few years at the high school, but ended up leaving to play full time at St. John Vianney’s church.
She did end up returning to Pleasant Valley to be the accompanist at the Junior High for two years. At the end of these two years, Seward returned to the high school and it is now her third year working here as an accompanist.
Seward’s job as an accompanist is to learn to play every single piece each choir at the high school learns. She learns how each part is sung, so she can play the notes along with each part. She also learns to play the accompaniment part to perform along with the choir. On top of playing for four different choirs, she practices the piano for an hour and a half every day.
During Solo and Ensemble festival, Seward may end up playing over 50 different pieces. She is the accompaniment for many ensembles, but is also is the accompaniment for many students’ who do solos. “The students keep up my piano skills because of the amount and the difficulty of music I have to play,” said Seward.
The other adult staff are grateful to have such a great accompanist working with and amongst them. “She goes above and beyond in a lot of little things that few people notice,” said choir director, Meg Byrne. “A lot of the music and things we are able to do are because of her helpfulness towards every student.”
Whether it be students who rush into the room and ask Seward to quickly play their solo with them or students learning more about music from her, the students are lucky to have her.
“The best part of my day is walking into the choir room and being greeted by her smile,” said senior, Christine Lyon. “Her support has helped me persevere in many areas of my life beyond choir, and I hope she knows how much I appreciate all that she does.”
