Joya Muma has come a long way from not being able to attend school because of chronic pain and disabilities to studying at university to play a unique instrument.
Muma, who grew up in Powell River, currently attends the University of York in England where she is studying the Renaissance lute. Her experiences and trials to reach this point have not been easy. At the age of 14 she started experiencing chronic face pain. For Muma, who had already been struggling with Attention Deficit Disorder, the disability proved too much and attending school became impossible.
Muma missed about a year and a half of school in total and spent a lot of time at BC Children’s Hospital. Through the Powell River Board of Education Muma secured funding to get a tutor to teach her at home so she could finish her schooling through the Partners in Education (PIE) program.
Music has always been a big part of Muma’s life. She sang competitively as a child, but her face pain made that impossible as a teenager. Longing to once again have music in her life Muma took up the cello at 15. She enjoyed the cello but at a concert, when she heard a lute being played for the first time, she was taken with the obscure instrument.
“I just fell in love,” said Muma. “Just hearing it and seeing it for the first time...and that was it. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”
The lute is a plucked string instrument most popular in the 15th century and commonly played with either Renaissance or Baroque music. Muma plays a Renaissance lute which is handmade, has 15 strings and a deep, rounded hollow body. It is a rare instrument to see played nowadays and only one university in Canada and two in the United States teach the art.
Infrequent lessons in Victoria while finishing school at home gave Muma her start with the instrument. After graduating high school she started taking regular lessons in Vancouver and worked toward her goal of going to university to study the instrument. She practiced for a year and then applied to two universities in the United Kingdom. Her first choice accepted her and her goal, which had seemed daunting at times, became reality.
“It’s wonderful, it’s my dream come true,” said Muma. “Even with somebody with a lot of disabilities...if you have something and you work toward it you can achieve it. And I think anyone can do whatever they want if they put their mind to it.”
Muma credits her parents with helping her reach her goal, along with the educators in Powell River who made it possible for her to complete secondary school. She also acknowledges the people at children’s hospital for all their help and her music teachers for their guidance and knowledge. She hopes to go on to earn her Masters degree in music but for now is concentrating on her current studies and continuing to battle her disabilities.
“Every day is like running a marathon,” said Muma. “This is what I really want to do so I’m trying the best that I can.”
