One U student is getting paid to work with more than 12 different majors and minors.Kendrick Woolstenhulme has been playing piano at The Tavernacle for about eight months and is part of the dueling piano players team. The junior business major started playing piano at the age of 7 and said he remembers wanting to start piano lessons, but after a while was unsure of what he was getting into. “I could never go out and play with my friends after school because my parents made me stay home and practice,” Woolstenhulme said. But after five years of lessons, he said, he really started to like playing the piano.Along with his piano lessons, Woolstenhulme began writing his own songs at the age of 9. “My lesson books had these short, kind of corny little songs in them that I got bored playing over and over, so I started writing my own songs,” Woolstenhulme said.Woolstenhulme grew up in Oakley, Utah, and began his career in piano by playing at weddings in high school. “I began to realize that it was a great way to make some money,” Woolstenhulme said.He landed his job at The Tavernacle after passing by one day becoming curious when he saw that it is a piano bar. “I went in and they told me to come back one night and play a few songs for them,” Woolstenhulme said. “They were impressed and told me to come in on a Saturday to see how I was in front of a crowd.”Woolstenhulme has been working at The Taverncale ever since.Part of Woolstenhulme’s piano-playing job includes singing his songs, too.Singing and playing is something Woolstenhulme said came naturally to him. “It’s not hard for me at all. It’s just like walking: Keep one leg in front of the other, and it works out,” he said.Phyllis Holmes, a human development and family studies major, has seen Woolstenhulme play at The Tavernacle. “I watched him and another piano player play ‘Dueling Banjos.’ I was sitting right behind Kendrick, and his fingers were moving so fast; it was amazing to watch,” Holmes said. The audience agreed with Holmes, he said, as they sent up requests for Woolstenhulme and put dollar bills into the glass jar sitting on top of the piano.Woolstenhulme is currently working on his first CD, a compilation of original songs. “The CD is basically finished and now is in the mixing and mastering process,” Woolstenhulme said. When it is finished, it will be available in local stores.Woolstenhulme can be seen playing at The Tavernacle on Wednesday nights, and has some weekend nights coming up in December.
Christopher PeddecordU student Kendrick Woolstenhulme entertains patrons at the Tavernacle on Wednesday night with songs including Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” and Sir Mix-a-lot’s “Baby Got Back.”