Little did she know it at the time, but The Pet Shop Suite actually began its life when Kristen was 9 years old and wrote Midnight Mice. As she performed this piece for friends, it was suggested that she should compose a whole suite of music about pet shop animals. This piqued Kristen’s interest, and she quickly developed a great collection of ideas for other animals, exploring which animals she could depict best through the piano.
It wasn’t until the final year of primary school, at age 11, that Kristen formalised these ideas into the pieces that we now see in ‘The Pet Shop Suite.’ One of her school projects that year was to design and create a product by herself from scratch. At first, she wanted to make a chocolate box, but her parents told her that a chocolate box wouldn’t last, while a book of piano pieces would. The whole process of designing and producing the book for her school project was an enjoyable learning experience. Kristen used a computer program to notate the music, as well as designing drawing the cover art and writing the foreword and special thanks. The first version of ‘The Pet Shop Suite,’ which she submitted for her year 6 school project featured:
- The Cat and the Bird
- Dance of the Ferrets
- March of the Scottie Dog
- Midnight Mice
Kristen also included a CD within the book, which featured the computer program’s rendition of each of the pieces.
And if you’re wondering what this version looked like, then be amazed… ;D
Some months after the school project, Kristen added a fifth piece to the suite, and called it ‘The Slithering Snake.’
Kristen really enjoyed the process and rewarding result that came from writing her own music and putting it into a book, so in 2014, at the age of 12, Kristen decided to publish ‘The Pet Shop Suite’ professionally, along with professional design and illustrations, as well as recording the audio of each of the pieces for the CD.
This meant that she was able to release her first book of original piano pieces.
Kristen has since released an easy version of ‘The Pet Shop Suite’ titled ‘The Pet Shop Suite Easy Piano.’ This features the same pieces that are in the original version of ‘The Pet Shop Suite,’ although uses fewer octaves or fast notes, therefore making this piano music suitable for less advanced pianists, as well as very small hands.
Here are the final versions of ‘The Pet Shop Suite’ (blue cover) and ‘The Pet Shop Suite Easy Piano’ (green cover).
If you are interested in purchasing a version of ‘The Pet Shop Suite,’ they are available in the shop. The music is also available on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Google Play, Amazon, and more. Enjoy!