Seventeen-year-old singer-songwriter Tivoli Skye writes songs even in her sleep.
“I started playing music just out of the womb,” said Skye, of Pittsford, who started piano lessons at the age of 4.
Writing her first improvisation piece at age 9, Skye moved on to guitar at age 11 and wrote a song her first week of learning the instrument. The pop singer released two albums in 2009 and, in 2011, released the EP “Adventures of a Teenage Life.”
So, it’s clear the music comes easy.
But Skye, who is entering her senior year at Rush-Henrietta Senior High School this fall, has had another struggle to overcome: being bullied.
Four years ago, during the summer before entering ninth grade, Skye said, she was physically bullied by a group of girls from a previous school.
And that’s when she started thinking differently about her music.
“I thought, ‘I have to do something. I can’t just let this go and let people continue to get hurt,’” she said. “It’s just horrible to think about — that kids can be so brutal and so disrespectful to themselves and to others.”
Standing up against bullying
For Skye, it was this incident that gave her the extra push to start writing songs about bullying. She got more encouragement after her performance at a conference in Washington, D.C., with record labels like Atlantic Records and Def Jam listening in. After she met with a few music executives, they encouraged Skye to find a way to connect to her audience more — and the anti-bullying cause was a good way to do so.
Her response was positive.
“I can give it a shot,” she said. “It just takes a lot of feeling out, and it’s got to be the right time. I finally found the right time for me, and it’s been pretty successful so far.”
Since then, Skye has been involved in several anti-bullying efforts, such as her “Stand Up Stand Out” event in March that focused on bullying, abuse and suicide prevention, including presentations from 10 organizations and past NFL player Tony Jordan. She also worked with former Miss New York Kaitlin Monte and Sen. Jeff Klein to pass an anti-cyberbullying bill.
Moving forward
And for all her efforts, Skye was recently awarded Kaitlin Monte’s scholarship for $1,000 at the Miss New York pageant in Staten Island.
“She created it for kids like me who really go out and do something for the world, because a lot of people don’t think about anyone else anymore,” she said. “It might promote people to start working toward helping more because there’s a goal at the end.”
Seventeen-year-old singer-songwriter Tivoli Skye writes songs even in her sleep.
“I started playing music just out of the womb,” said Skye, of Pittsford, who started piano lessons at the age of 4.
Writing her first improvisation piece at age 9, Skye moved on to guitar at age 11 and wrote a song her first week of learning the instrument. The pop singer released two albums in 2009 and, in 2011, released the EP “Adventures of a Teenage Life.”
So, it’s clear the music comes easy.
But Skye, who is entering her senior year at Rush-Henrietta Senior High School this fall, has had another struggle to overcome: being bullied.
Four years ago, during the summer before entering ninth grade, Skye said, she was physically bullied by a group of girls from a previous school.
And that’s when she started thinking differently about her music.
“I thought, ‘I have to do something. I can’t just let this go and let people continue to get hurt,’” she said. “It’s just horrible to think about — that kids can be so brutal and so disrespectful to themselves and to others.”
Standing up against bullying
For Skye, it was this incident that gave her the extra push to start writing songs about bullying. She got more encouragement after her performance at a conference in Washington, D.C., with record labels like Atlantic Records and Def Jam listening in. After she met with a few music executives, they encouraged Skye to find a way to connect to her audience more — and the anti-bullying cause was a good way to do so.
Her response was positive.
“I can give it a shot,” she said. “It just takes a lot of feeling out, and it’s got to be the right time. I finally found the right time for me, and it’s been pretty successful so far.”
Since then, Skye has been involved in several anti-bullying efforts, such as her “Stand Up Stand Out” event in March that focused on bullying, abuse and suicide prevention, including presentations from 10 organizations and past NFL player Tony Jordan. She also worked with former Miss New York Kaitlin Monte and Sen. Jeff Klein to pass an anti-cyberbullying bill.
Moving forward
And for all her efforts, Skye was recently awarded Kaitlin Monte’s scholarship for $1,000 at the Miss New York pageant in Staten Island.
“She created it for kids like me who really go out and do something for the world, because a lot of people don’t think about anyone else anymore,” she said. “It might promote people to start working toward helping more because there’s a goal at the end.”
Although Skye is doing just that to reach out, she is also recovering.
“I will move on from those people,” she said “ ... It was an interesting opportunity; I learned a lot from it and grew from it.”
And she wants to continue to help others in the future, whether it be through her music or a career in the nursing or law fields.
“When people are having a problem, I want them to feel that they can come to me and talk,” she said.
Planning on attending the University of Rochester after finishing her senior year at Rush-Henrietta, Skye said she has been focusing her time on her academics this past year.
But, she said, she will always find time for her music.
