Kayley Porter
From Omnictionary
Kayley Porter (born Sabina Kayley Porter, May 24, 1991) is an American teenager known for her mischievous go-abouts with her "bestest friend" Carli Lamon, and their younger counterpart Peter Geller. In May of 2000, the three then-fourth-graders set out on a project to dig a trench around Jefferson Park. Her activities of late are proprietary, but it is known that she is a very gifted musician and lyricist even at her young age.
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Early Life
Birth and First Years
Sabina Kayley Porter was born the 1st daughter and 6th child to Phoebe Sylvia Koška-Porter and Robert Allen Porter in Long Beach, California. Shortly after her birth, her parents moved their family to Orlando, Florida. At a very young age, Sabina "Kayley" --who prefers to be called Kayley-- showed much promise in the fields of music and writing, speaking her first words and dancing to her first song at only 7 months and 10 months (respectively) after her birth. At 1 year and 5 months, her mother, a Czech immigrant, video taped her singing "Tambourine Man" with no apparent parental instruction, and very few mistakes. Her mother promptly mailed the video tape to a local Television News channel, Channel 4, which garnered the large family much attention. The Porters, however, decided to allow their children the right to a normal adolescence, not giving any more press coverage to her abilities as a singer.
Making Friends
Upon entering her first day in Kindergarten, Kayley met Carli Lamon. The two soon became the best of friends. Throughout their elementary school tenure, they were nearly inseparable, forming the most formidable handball, 4-square and tether-ball teams; the two being the captains of course. It was there during one of their competitions that they went up against a team headed by Peter Geller. Although the match was close, the two girls came out the champions. They soon after befriended Peter Geller, respecting him on a subliminal level that they couldn't yet describe. After this meeting, the three became the known triumvirate that led all playground activities.
The Incident
The Incident Itself
The three formed into a new handball team, known as "The Bashers." They also organized competitions of 4-square and tether ball, but the entire playground, grades 1st through 5th, knew them best as the greatest handball team assembled this side of the Mississippi (M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i). It was one fate-riddled day that it happened. The three, Kayley, Carli, and Peter, were competing in the championship game of the first "Audubon Park Coed Handball Championship" against a team that had showed much promise throughout the competition. The team belonged to Margo Roth Spiegelman and Quentin Jacobsen, who were known for their "One-Two-Slam" technique. The score was 2-2, when Kayley and Margo were up against one another in a sudden-death round. Margo pulled a questionable "One-Slam" technique, which was an unspoken No-No, and the ball careened right for Kayley and struck her in the throat, collapsing her trachea for a moment. The competition was called a draw on account of Kayley's immediate medical problem.
Doctor's Appointment and Prognosis
Kayley was immediately rushed to a hospital, being resuscitated in the ambulance on the way there. After 3 hours in examination, the doctors came to her parents with good and bad news. They told her that her daughter was fine, but the rubber ball had done an incredible amount of damage to her vocal cords. During the time her trachea was collapsed, one of her vocal cords became paralyzed, rendering her unable to ever sing again. Her parents were very distraught, as was Kayley when she finally heard the news some 10 hours after being put under.
The Comeback
This accident didn't deter Kayley, Carli and Peter. The very next year they held the same competition, with included teams from 1st grade on through 5th grade. Margo and Quentin, now 5th graders, were the expected champions, because The Bashers had lost their handball king street credentials after Kayley's accident. Just as predicted, the two teams, The Bashers and Margo and Quentin's team faced one another in the championship round. At the end of regulation, the score ended up 1-1, and it was once again time for a sudden death round. Margo and Quentin unanimously chose Margo to be their tie-breaker, but The Bashers had dissenting opinion on who would be the one to face Margo. Kayley, understandably, wanted to be the one to face off, but Peter being taller and more athletic, was the obvious favorite between the other two. Kayley wouldn't have it any other way, and walked out there while the other two bickered. Margo served, Kayley answered. Margo thought she was set up for the perfect One-Slam move again, however, Kayley had a trick up her sleeve. When Margo went to slam the ball against the wall, Kayley ran back, cushioning the time between the ball hitting the wall and coming toward her. The ball flew over the top of Margo and landed halfway between her and Kayley, right before the regulation "out-of-bounds" line. Kayley assisted herself, hitting the ball withing 2 feet of the wall without bouncing, and softly bounced the ball off the wall. Margo, anticipating a One-Two-Slam move, had moved back to the penalty line. The soft hit didn't allow her the time to recover; the ball bounced once off the wall, once off the ground, and Margo dived to save it. She landed 1 foot short of the ball's come-down bounce, giving the game-point and victory to The Bashers.
4th Grade
In 4th grade, the three announced plans to dig a trench circumnavigating Jefferson Park.
Middle School and Poetic Prominence
First Year
Kayley entered Middle School, like the rest of her class, a fresh face. However, midway throughout the year she started to dislike her schooling. Some cite her being not challenged enough, others claim she had a learning disability; yet all opinions remain pinioned around the fact that she was an amazing architect with words.
"She had this incredible ability to form amazing metaphors way beyond her age and maturity level. She was a youthful Sylvia Plath writing the poetry of landscapes 'hearkening [her] back to 1st grade.' " says Kayley's 6th grade teacher, Ms. Brandt.
Her teacher, unbeknownst to Kayley, entered her poem in a young-adults poetry contest. Kayley's poem, "The Mistfull Hills of Napa" won her the 1st prize. When Kayley's teacher told her that her poem had won the entire competition and she was to collect the prize in an all expense paid trip to New York with one of her parents, Kayley didn't seem to take too kindly to the news. According to some sources, Kayley had wanted to keep her poetry private, and her teacher submitting that poem was a great betrayal of her privacy. Kayley, however, obliged to the trip, and read her entire poem, all 103 stanzas, to an audience that had the likes of Noam Chomsky and Oprah Winfrey in it. She was greeted with a standing ovation. Kayley told her teacher shortly after coming back from New York that she would not continue with her poetry writing.
"I still remember that day. Kayley looked at me with deep, dark black pits of eyes. She almost appeared to be inwardly grieving. Her mouth opened timidly and then she said it: 'Because of your betrayal, I have stopped writing poetry. I find no need in people taking interest in my life. I would like to thank you, though, for your care.' I couldn't imagine words like that coming from an 11-year-old, but she spoke them with perfect oration. She was such a bright student."
Remaining Years
Nobody is totally sure whether or not she completely stopped writing poetry. The general consensus guessed no: everybody who had read her poem couldn't believe that incredible artistic creativity being kept behind a shut door. She did, however, vent her beautiful side in another art-form. After her alleged poetic retirement, Kayley soon learned how to play Violin. Her mother described her as the most prolific autodidact, citing that she never took any formal lessons from any musician. According to her mother, 3 weeks after telling her teacher she had stopped writing poetry, Kayley went to the local pawn shop and spent all of her savings --$1,542 in total-- on 3 instruments: violin, electric keyboard, and saxophone. When she got home, she had began making good on her artistic side, soon learning how to form melody and harmony with each of the instruments.
"At first I thought all the squeaking and scratching and random key hitting was just childhood play, and that she would grow out of it," recounts her father. "But she persisted. Just about 5 weeks after she had purchased the three instruments, I remember coming home from work and hearing an amazing symphonic sound coming from her room. I thought she was listening to some Bach quartets. She was, in fact, playing her violin with a recording of her playing the keyboard as the background melody. I was astonished."
Not too long after that day, her father recommended her to join the middle school band. She, however, declined the proposal, saying that she wasn't nearly the calibre of the other students.
8th Grade
A year after her father told her to join the school band, Kayley and her 2 friends started a small garage band consisting of Peter on the drums and Cali vocals and playing the electric guitar. They decided to name their band "The Bashers," which reminded them of their younger days in, what Kayley would later describe to the student newspaper as "Simpler Times." In that same interview, Kayley was asked who was the major contributor to the band's lyrics and musical composition, citing Kayley's poem as a probable statement to Kayley's creativity. Kayley, however, told the reporter that the two largest contributors were Peter and Carli. Those two, however, said that Kayley was by far the most creative of them all, and had "worked out and composed all of the songs in her head prior to telling the band about them." In a later interview with Carli: "She actually encouraged us to contribute. We, however, couldn't match the storm that was her artistic soul. She would come to Peter's garage with a stack of papers, each of which being a hand-written composition for each of the instruments involved in the band. She would then write lyrics to our songs. I don't know exactly what to call it, but she was... amazing. In fact, she would actually play 3 instruments. Often she would record two of the instruments, being saxophone and violin, before coming to practice, and would give us a line to play along. It was hard to describe. I still think she was the best vocalist, too. She didn't want to sing, though. I still could never understand that. Christ, she took control of the band, composed all the songs, played 3 instruments. Maybe singing was just too much. I don't know. Did I mention she taught us all how to play our instruments? She was an incredible musician. I don't think she even took any lessons. She couldn't have taken lessons for all the instruments she could play. God, she knew 'em all." Even though her band had flourished among the younger musically literate scene, her grades had waned for the last time. Kayley's parents decided to pull her out of school and keep her home schooled. Kayley tentatively agreed, under a few stipulations. One of which being that she had time from after school had let out until 9 at night to practice with her band. Her parents agreed.
A Budding Genius and College
Her parents noted soon after pulling her out of school that she would race through all of her book-work so she could get to dealings with her band. Another thing that they noticed was that she learned incredibly fast. They realized that the schooling system under the "No Child Left Behind" act had in fact left her behind. By the time she would have been a freshman in high school, she was doing calculus mathematics and was reading novels way beyond her maturity level; feats she would never have accomplished had she stayed in public education. Her parents found copies of Milan Kundera, Jean-Paul Sartre, James Joyce, and even Thomas Pynchon in her room, stashed under her bed, each having a bookmark somewhere among their pages. They also found pages and pages of reports written on the subtleties of each book hand-written with absolutely no grammatical and syntax mistakes. Her parents became very aware that their child was a blossoming polymath and that their rudimentary understanding of schooling beyond high school wouldn't contain her for but another few months. They confronted her with their findings, and told her that they wanted to enroll her in some college that would tailor a course to her learning curve. Kayley didn't seem to mind, just as long as she was able to still have time with her 2 friends and still play music when she got back during her breaks. With out a second thought, her parents agreed.
The next week, Kayley's parents sent off some of her reports and recordings of her band's music to many schools, some of which include Harvard, Juilliard, and MIT. Each one offered Kayley a full-ride scholarship for anything she wished to study, and all complied to tailor an education plan that would match her intellect. Kayley ultimately chose Juilliard.
College Life and Now
According to her parents and officials at Juilliard, Kayley is on track to obtaining her Masters degree by the time she is 18. At the writing of this, she is turning 16 in 5 days, and has already completed 3 "normal" years of college in less than a year. Her professors call her the most amazing student to go through any American college ever. Her current schedule includes mathematics on the 400 level, English at the 700 level, and several sciences --including organic chemistry and biology-- on the 500 level.
"Never before have I seen such a prolific mind in all of my time here at Juilliard, and never before have I read any writing with such depth and development in my entire life," says one of her English professors, Dr. Carter Bristow.
Her friends, both nearing their 16th birthdays as well, still maintain contact with her, and have allegedly contemplated going on a local tour when she gets back from her first year. This rumor has yet to be confirmed.
Utoob Controversy
A rumor had circulated around her town, and even through her college dorm complex, that the UToob sensation "CompositionGurl" was in fact Kayley recording and compiling her own songs and placing them on the website. Kayley has told her parents, friends, and dorm mates that the sensation --which has over 2 million views combined-- was not her.
"She looked at me with a half smile and said she was not nearly as talented as the person playing those songs. Besides, she told me, she always wrote lyrics to her songs. Not one of those songs had lyrics," said Carli.
Nobody is for certain who the person is, and even when prompted on UToob, "CompositionGurl" declines to make any statement as to what their real name is. The musical instruments used in the videos include Violin, Piano, Saxophone, Electric Guitar, Mandolin, Zither, a set of bells, Xylophone, Drum Kit, Timpanis, and even a Theremin. "CompositionGurls" personal channel states that she plays each instrument, records it, and then plays the other instruments on top of the other, forming personal compositions and double-tracks. A personal statement from the site:
"I play each of the instruments separate from the other, recording each part of the music on my laptop with Audacity. I then put each track in line with the other to make the piece itself. It generally takes me 5-6 hours to get the piece to my liking, and another few hours to edit each of my faux pas' out."
No statement from her parents, professors, or two childhood friends has been made regarding any musical creation of her's while she's been away at Juilliard. When asked about her musical creation at college, her friends tend to not want to answer.
"If she has musical inspiration, she typically sends us photo-copies of the scores in the mail," says Peter. "She will then record her own parts and put them up on her website so we have guidance to the song she has created. We then practice and record ourselves and e-mail that recording to her. She then assembles the recording into the final song, and posts it on her website" --which Peter neglected to comment further on. "To date, we've had 3 new songs. It seems odd, too. When she was down here, she would make a new song about every week. But I can understand her being bogged down by school and stuff. I can hardly maintain my grades here in high school, with subjects like Algebra II and English Composition. I can only imagine what she has to deal with."
When asked about the new songs, Peter declined to make any other comments stating that, "We will let those who care about the songs in on them as soon as we're ready."
It hasn't been confirmed whether or not this means they do plan to go on tour when Kayley gets home in 2 weeks.
