Pennsylvania artists from Double Keyed share their stories and discuss their new Christmas album

• Aniya Faulcon
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  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

 Erick Anderson

Kirstin Myers, oboe and English horn player, and Frances Drost, pianist, who are a part of the two-person musical group, Double Keyed.

Airdate: December 08, 2022

Local musicians, Kirstin Myers, oboe and English horn player, and Frances Drost, pianist, are a part of the two-person musical group called Double Keyed.

Early last month, they released their Christmas album called Midwinter’s Gift. Just eleven days after releasing their album, it charted at thirteen on the Billboard Classical Crossover chart.

When Drost and Myers got this news they said, they were in disbelief.

However, before this celebratory moment, Drost and Myers experienced challenges during COVID-19.

“All of my performances were canceled and it wasn’t just the financial, it was the emotional realization that I felt like what I had been put here on earth to do was taken away from me,” Drost said. “Out of it came some very beautiful things. So, I’m okay on the other side of it.”

Drost also said, her husband encouraged her to continue creating music and she began practicing playing the piano for hours. She started doing house concerts and daily Facebook Live concerts for her fans and sold more merchandise than she did the year before.

Myers said, her music teaching career and will to be positive source for her students, dealing with the challenges of virtual learning, got her through the pandemic.

She also created a podcast, Life Between the Notes, with Morgann Davis, a flutist in Lancaster, to share the stories of local musicians.

Myers and Drost said, another beautiful thing that came out of the pandemic was their Christmas album, Midwinter’s Gift.

“The feedback we’re getting is, ‘I just feel such peace when I listen.’ Getting that from people has been so fulfilling and that’s the idea, to help people through your music,” Myers said. “Touching people, trying to bring down that stress level, trying to just improve the quality of of life. That’s the idea of this album.”