Tick. Tick. Tick.

It’s driving her insane.

To sophomore Kyla Rocha, there is nothing more “lonely” than the constant click of the metronome, her only companion during hours-long solo practices.

“I hated, and I still hate solo music with a passion,” Rocha said. “I was getting really overwhelmed with practicing alone. There was a moment where I did not want to play violin anymore, and I told my mom, ‘I can’t do this.’”

Hearing this, Rocha’s mother, Laura Rocha, turned to Rocha’s private teacher, who recommended chamber music as an alternative. Group settings, such as orchestra, help Rocha concentrate more, and she finds them more enjoyable overall.

“She likes to have fun, she enjoys fun music,” orchestra teacher Laurette Reynosa said. “But she knows how to be serious at the same time. I appreciate her uniqueness. She’s an all-around good musician.”

Since then, Rocha “hasn’t looked back” and has developed her love of music and the violin through her experience as part of Bellaire’s Philharmonic orchestra and American Festival for the Arts’s orchestra and chamber ensemble programs.

Rocha’s journey into the violin was encouraged by her mother, who has always been a supporter of music in her daughter’s life. She was the one to take Rocha to a Lindsey Stirling concert that first sparked her interest, and has since seen her love for music grow.

“Violin and music have always been an outlet for Kyla’s curiosity, and as she’s become a teenager, it’s become an outlet for [her] roller coaster of emotions,” Laura Rocha said. “When she was little, it was more for exploration, and then as she grew and started playing with other people, her music world was really cracked wide open with the possibilities.”

Kyla and Laura Rocha have bonded over their shared interests in music, with Laura Rocha’s background in the art contributing to the basis of their relationship. Laura Rocha played piano, flute and the tuba as a child, playing tuba as a charter member of the Hullabaloo athletic pep band at Texas A&M in 2004.

“Even singing along to some of my favorite songs on the radio has fostered her love for music,” Laura Rocha said. “We have similar curiosities as far as interest in all the instruments, so I definitely think I had to have had some influence, whether it was genetic propensity or exposure from birth. We definitely have a lot in common, and I think she’s the coolest kid out there.”

Rocha is part of the club Music as Medicine and participated in a performance at Memorial Hermann Hospital on March 31. She played as part of a quartet to an audience of patients, medical professionals, other parents and her mom.

The performance held a “special place” in Laura Rocha’s heart, as her daughter was born in the same hospital in 2009. Kyla Rocha was born premature and had a birth defect requiring surgery, causing her to remain in the hospital for six weeks during recovery.

“I was all choked up watching her play there because the last time I was in that building was when Kyla was in the NICU,” Laura Rocha said. “The windows in the NICU face Hermann Park, and I would stand in the window holding tiny Kyla, praying that one day that would be us down there playing in the park. Never did I imagine that she’d be playing music down by the elevators for families just like ours. It was really a full circle moment and a prayer answered.”

Though her mom would support Rocha playing violin professionally, for now, Rocha sees the violin as a hobby. Rocha wants her experience to remain fun and stress-free, leading her to develop a more “go-with-the-flow” attitude.

“Violin for me is more of a fun, lighthearted, not intense hobby,” Rocha said. “I enjoy doing it, so I put the time and effort into it. I love playing violin with groups for fun because we don’t have to stress and we can just talk and joke around.”

Her attitude on music also gives her motivation to explore different instrumental outlets besides the violin, including the keyboard, midi keyboard, ukulele, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and oboe, with a particular interest in exploring different playing styles outside of her orchestra and ensemble groups.

“There’s so many different ways that I can incorporate the other instruments into the music that I play, in different styles too, not just classical,” Rocha said. “I can use the violin to discover new people and new things.”

Discovery is Rocha’s favorite part of music. And whenever she experiments, Rocha shares her creations with her mother, who experiences nostalgia for her own childhood.

“We have similar curiosities as far as interest in all the instruments, so I definitely think I had to have had some influence, whether it was genetic propensity or exposure from birth,” Laura Rocha said. “My mom always shared music with me as a kid, and I remember many days as a little kid tinkering with our piano and my dad’s cornet, so I think it just came naturally.”

Laura Rocha’s positive outlook on music has carried over into a similar experience for her daughter, creating a shared love of the art form that the mother-daughter duo can bond over for years to come.

“[Playing violin] made me realize I click with music,” Kyla Rocha said. “There’s so many different ways that I could incorporate all these unique styles of violin into my playing. I just love music so much.”