At 5, she took her first piano lesson. At 13, she was in the first of over a dozen musicals. At 21, she won first place at SUNY Geneseo’s concerto competition, with a prize of performing her rendition of Schumann’s concerto in A minor with the college’s 56 piece orchestra. And at 28, she was called the next best thing to happen to Boston. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when” was the quote in the Boston Herald. But, at 31, Christine Baze’s life as she knew it was turned upside down – with a diagnosis of invasive cervical cancer.
“For the first time since I could remember, the music stopped. I didn’t want to sing. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting down at the piano,” recalled Christine. “I truly didn’t know if I could ever return to who I was before my cancer.” She fought for her life. Surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy became her world. After treatment, she was depleted and incomplete, questioning everything about her life and what the future held. But just as music had always provided an outlet for her and a community to support her when she felt alone, the piano and the music could not stay out of her life for long. Many months after her treatments and days filled with depression, she finally sat back down at the piano and started to play. “It literally brought me – the Christine I knew – back to life.”
After such a devastating period, Christine knew that she could not return to the music she loved without also addressing the disease that threatened to take away everything. She knew that she needed to use her music to reach people, to raise awareness, to educate others, and to give back to the community that had always supported her. So she decided to take her message across the country – and thus The Yellow Umbrella Tour was born. “I go out on stage, sing a song, and then stop and call out to the audience, ‘Hey, everyone. I’m here to share my music and my story. I’m here because I’m one of the lucky ones. No one out there should suffer or die from cervical cancer.’ And then I sing some more.”
To Christine’s amazement, people listened. They not only listened; they crowded her after the show and asked questions. They told their friends about her story and bought her CDs. Since then, the last 7 years have been quite a ride for Christine Baze. The Yellow Umbrella Tour has made 100 stops around the country and Christine has had nearly 200 speaking gigs. She has shared the stage with Sheryl Crow, Ben Folds, The Fray, Kaki King, Sarah Bettens and K's Choice, Duncan Sheik, The Dan Band, Michele Shocked, Catie Curtis and many others. Beating cancer and releasing her albums Something New in 2006 and Ever Changing Colors in 2008 proved Christine to be both a survivor and a songwriter.
In 2008, Christine reconnected with her 8th grade health teacher, Barb VanDine, who at that very moment was experiencing a 2nd diagnosis of cancer among one of her close family members. Christine’s story delivered through music moved Barb tremendously, so much so that Barb helped Christine organize an assembly for her alma mater, Southside High School in Elmira, NY to share her message. As Christine performed for a captive audience of 1000 students, she knew that she had stumbled onto something big. “Of course it was really cool to be on tour buses and sing at clubs. But I now feel that talking to these students, these teenagers, is where I should be. They respond to the music and the message. They see me and they see potential in themselves. They tell me that for the first time, they can see how they can use what they love – their music, their art, their voices – to bring something back to others. And that inspires them to make a difference.”
Barb became Director of Paint It Yellow and worked to bring health teachers, choir directors, band teachers, principals, and superintendants “under the umbrella.” She reached out to community leaders and pulled them into her excitement with the message that “we are going to see an end to this cancer, and we will be part of that.” And she knows how to access funding – through the Arts and Education Council, the Varsity Club, the Student Council, the Key Club – all of these groups are willing and eager to raise money, rally around a cause, and feel part of Paint It Yellow. They plan a week of activities and line Christine up at various schools, the YWCA, and local workplaces. And Christine spends her days singing her heart out and educating the audience. “No one has to go through what I went through,” she tells the girls, their moms and the teachers in the audience. “And no matter what your age, there is something you can to do protect yourselves. Girls – talk to your moms about getting vaccinated. Moms and teachers – get the Pap and HPV tests. Go out and share this with everyone you know.”
The greatest moment for Christine came on June 6th, 2009. The choir director from her high school, Robert Dumas, asked Christine to be part of the school’s Pops concert, a large variety type show that has happened every spring for over 50 years. The Concert Choir wanted to sing along with Christine and become part of ‘Team Yellow,’ giving the students the opportunity to not only receive Christine’s message, but to use their talents to give back. Christine enlisted other school alumni to help arrange the music – fellow classmate Todd Cole who is now a music teacher, Billy Cutter who teaches music composition, and even her former Middle School music teacher David Bates.
The concert pulled the entire community together, connecting everyone through the arts. “The kids wore yellow and were playing instruments and singing songs to their parents and friends in the audience. The parents could see their kids as part of something bigger. And at that moment, everyone there – from the alumni who I had called on to arrange the music, the teachers, the parents, the kids, the school - they were all part of Team Yellow, part of eliminating a cancer. And there is NOTHING cooler than that! I feel I have truly come full circle.”
So, why do the arts matter to Christine Baze? “I KNOW that I am the person I am today BECAUSE of music. It gave me the home base I needed as I went through school, it gave me comfort and inspiration through cancer, and now it opens ears and helps me sing my message...music has been part of my journey, my healing. Music saves lives. I know it saved mine.”