Roland Atelier
Landmark Organ Sound, Performance, and Luxury
Roland AtelierLandmark Organ Sound, Performance, and Luxury
Meet Cathleen Smith, veteran, nurse and life long musician!
Cathleen currently resides in The Villages, FL. but her life’s journey began in Toledo, Ohio where she was born and raised. In the mid sixties, after graduating from nursing school, Cathleen joined the Army Nurse Corps serving a year at Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas and a year in Vietnam. Says Cathleen, “It was an experience that was both heart warming and heart breaking. Never to be forgotten and cherished forever.”
After Cathleen returned home she went on to get a degree in nurse anesthesiology, married her wonderful husband, Ben, of 27 years and moved to Florida in 1978. Cathleen has recently retired from Florida Hospital and, after the passing of her husband, moved to The Villages.
Cathleen’s musical experiences began as many do - with piano lessons as a child. Starting in high school, she also played the trumpet, “neglecting my piano, as most teenagers do.” While she has owned an organ throughout most of her adult life, a career, family and a home to care for left little time to enjoy her musical hobby. After moving to The Villages, she got involved with the lesson program at Showtime Music and now is the proud owner of a Roland AT-800. Her renewed interest combined with more time to study and practice led Cathleen to take a chance at her local Atelier Organ Fest competition last October. To her surprise, she won and went on to represent Showtime Music at the Atelier Fest Regional Competition in February. Cathleen was selected as a National Finalist and won a trip to Los Angeles to perform in the finals on March 27th.
When she’s not playing her organ, Cathleen also enjoys playing the baritone horn in The Villages’ New Horizons band and in the Lake Concert band, as well as enjoying some other hobbies including biking, golf, horseback riding and movies.