Life On Purpose Over 40 Podcast

She Shocked the World: From Silenced Girl to Global Stage (It’s Never Too Late)

• Caroline Balinska + Benita Rose • Season 2 • Episode 6

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What if the very obstacles you thought would hold you back turned out to be your greatest superpowers? 🎹

She was once a silenced girl, dismissed and overlooked. Today, Benita Rose is a world-touring concert pianist proving it’s never too late to chase your dreams. In this episode of Life on Purpose Over 40, we dive into her incredible journey from battling selective mutism and self-doubt to performing on global stages like Carnegie Hall.

You’ll hear how she overcame fear, ageism, and setbacks to reclaim her voice through music — and how obstacles can become superpowers when you dare to follow your passion.

If you’ve ever felt “too old” or “too late,” Benita’s story will inspire you to dream bigger and live boldly.

👉 Learn how to transform obstacles into fuel, embrace your journey at any age, and step into your purpose — no matter when you start.

FOLLOW BENITA: https://www.facebook.com/share/1B2GGjw9zZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

About Bentia Rose:
World renowned concert pianist Benita Rose just returned from her fourth tour, having performed in Norway, Latvia, England, Spain, France, Canada, China, and South America. She has performed twice in Carnegie Hall within a half year’s time, and also at the Palau de Música Catalana in Barcelona.
In 2024, she performed in New York City twelve times, including at Klavierhaus and at the Tenri Cultural Institute. This year she has performed in Spain five times and has been invited back to present at the international piano conference hosted by EPTA in Madrid in November of this year.

Her recent CD featuring the music of living composer Marcos Fernández-Barrero, has aired on radio stations in England. New York music critic Jed Distler has described her live performance of this music as “beautiful music, beautifully played.”
Her lecture-recitals on the interpretation and performance of the Fernández-Barrero works are available through “From the Artist’s Bench” video series by subscription through NCKP.

In 2021-2022 Ms.Rose performed five different concertos in one season with various Arizona ensembles.

Ms. Rose has received glowing reviews for her Chopin playing from Pianist magazine.She was also the featured cover pianist of all their social media.

Ms. Rose was the first pianist in the  history of the World Saxophone Congress to be invited to give a lecture recital from the perspective of a pianist, in July 2025. She has been half of the Rose-Gibbs Duo, garnering international acclaim through competition and performance.

Ms. Rose’s performance of the Gershwin Concerto in F was heard on over 200 radio stations on Martin Goldsmith’s “Performance Today.”

Ms. Rose’s most recent projects include championing living composers as well as a new CD featuring Beethoven’s Op.109 Sonata, Bach-Busoni Chaconne, Chopin Ballade No.3, select Chopin études, and Liszt “Un Sospiro.”

Ms. Rose has won countless international solo piano competitions and is a former college professor of piano. Her pedagogical lineage can be traced to Beethoven, Czerny, and Liszt. She holds a Master of Music degree from the Hartt School, and was a student of Louis Crowder, Joseph Villa, and Luiz de Moura Castro. Other teachers have included Ilana Vered, Menahem Pressler, Irma Vallecillo, Alan Fraser, Paul Rutman, David Westfall, Raymond Lewenthal, Nina Svetlanova, and Emmanuel Ax.

When not playing piano, Ms. Rose enjoys studying languages and writing. Languages she enjoys include French, Latvian, Spanish, Catalan, Turkish, Latin, and currently adding Chinese. “Though it’s wonderful to know these langua

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Benita Rose:

Obstacles in our lives are really our superpowers, because they give you a chance to have a unique perspective. And so many times we think that something that's happening to us is so bad, but it's really part of our journey. And so many times we're on our way to the Wizard of Oz and we want the Oz, and the Yellow Brick Road was actually the wonderful journey.

Caroline Balinska:

Welcome to the Life on Purpose Over 40 podcast, where empowerment, elegance and health take center stage. I'll be your guide on this thrilling journey to outshine your past self. This is a podcast all about transformation. This is a podcast all about transformation. We're plunging headfirst into exactly what health, wellness, style, relationships and career look like as a woman over 40. You'll be hearing from all the most sought-after global trailblazers and experts. This isn't just about learning. It's about embracing your inner, fierce, fabulous self.

Caroline Balinska:

Let's get started. Welcome back to the podcast.

Caroline Balinska:

I'm Caroline Balinska and today we have the lovely Benita Rose. Hi Benita, how are you? Hello, I'm fine, thank you. First of all, I want to say thank you so much for inviting me to the show today. It's a pleasure to be here, oh welcome, even though it's early in the morning for me here.

Caroline Balinska:

Yes, yes, it is. It's around nine o'clock for you at the moment, isn't it?

Benita Rose:

Yes, but I'm a night person, oh, okay, so it's very early then. That makes sense. I put a four-year-old child, so for me that would be mid-afternoon for me by that stage. And, benita, it's great to have you here because when I read all of like a little bit of your story and your journey, I really wanted to have you on the podcast, because I find that you've got a very interesting life and you're a pianist and you also have had quite a long journey along the way of like interesting things happening for you, so I would love to hear more about you. Just give us a little brief intro first into who you are.

Benita Rose:

I am a concert pianist and I just returned from a world tour which ended in China. So I played in Norway, I played in England, I played in Latvia, I played in Spain. I played in so many places I can't even remember them all, but I also played in Carnegie Hall twice in eight months, and I performed at the Palau de Música in Barcelona, which is the Carnegie Hall of Spain. I just came out with two CDs. One is called Libre Free at Last, and the other is Reminiscences of Europe, and you can find those on Spotify. I won the pro division of several international piano competitions just in the past two years. I got a glowing review from Pianist Magazine Last year. I played in New York City 12 times and I'm slated to be the keynote artist at a national conference next year, and I'm sure I forgot something there too.

Caroline Balinska:

And you tell me that you're a night person, but when do you sleep? You sound like you do so much with your days.

Benita Rose:

Well, you know, this is all very energizing for me. Like people often wonder, how do I have the energy to do this? And when I leave for these tours I always feel like I'm so tired. But once I get on the plane I have a good sleep and then I get very stimulated after the performance, the adrenaline rush and everything. It's great.

Caroline Balinska:

Fantastic, that's amazing. And tell me a little bit about. How long have you been doing this for? Where did it all start from? Tell me a bit about your history, well.

Benita Rose:

I will first start by telling you how this all took off. A few years ago, I was at a time when most people are thinking about their retirement. I was teaching at a college and I was also a church organist and pianist, and I was suddenly overcome with this feeling that I want to play the piano and nothing else. I just want to practice and perform. It's fortunate I have a very supportive husband. I told him that I want to quit my job and this is what I want to do. Then I also said to him I am old, I am overweight, because with the schedule I had then I didn't have time to exercise or go to the doctor or anything. And he said go for it. And so what happened was I thought well, how can I get myself out there? Can I get myself out there? And what I came up with was that I would respond to a call for a conference. And so I found a call for a Mexican composer and I inadvertently typed in Spanish composer. That's fate. So what do you think I got? I got a Spanish composer from Barcelona, which I didn't know at the time because Marcos Fernandez came up and I should say his music came up, and so I downloaded it and I thought it's very beautiful. I so I downloaded it and I thought it's very beautiful. I sight-read it, I recorded it, I posted it on YouTube and about a year later or so, I got a message from him saying that he found my music, my playing of his music, and that he loved it so much. He thought it was very, very special. There's something about my phrasing.

Benita Rose:

And then at the time I was busy performing concertos here in Arizona and I thought it was very nice. I didn't really give it any further thought. But then some more time passed and he wrote to me again and he said I can't stop thinking about how beautifully you played my music. I wish you would come to Barcelona to play it. So I thought, well, that piece was a five-minute piece. So I thought I don't want to go to Barcelona and just play something for five minutes.

Benita Rose:

So I started downloading his other music and I found a treasure trove of just absolutely gorgeous music. And so what happened was I planned a program of exclusively his music and I also made a recording and I started getting invitations from all over the place to come and play this program of his music. After I did that the organizers loved the way I played and they said we would love to have you come back and play a program of traditional composers. So again, when I look back, I find this very interesting and to me it follows a theme that I think is good for everybody, which is when you feel moved to do something, do it. There's a reason for it, like a lot of people were saying to me well, you have been playing Beethoven and Liszt and Chopin your whole life. Why are you making this recording with this composer that we don't know? And I just feel that one thing kind of led to another. There was an interest in this composer, who is very well known in Spain and now internationally. And, yes, so it just exploded at that point.

Benita Rose:

And I started piano when I was six years old and my mother wanted to sign all of us up for music lessons and she showed me how to play a little bit. She was not a pianist, but she could play some things and I could do it immediately. So she brought me to a teacher and the teacher said well, we have to learn how to read notes. And on the way home my mother said I'm not going to pay for lessons on how to read notes. I will show you how it's done. And when she showed me it immediately made sense to me. I could sight read anything. I understood what the composers wanted in their music and my teacher immediately wanted me to give a solo recital at age six. But actually my first little concert tour was at school, because when the school music teacher heard me she wanted me to play for all her music classes and the school went through sixth grade. So these were like big sixth graders to me. So it was quite an honor. I remember just being super excited about that.

Caroline Balinska:

How old were you when that happened. Six, you were still six, my gosh.

Benita Rose:

Oh, so yeah. So my brother also began to play. He was nine and he would just play whatever I was playing, and so my mother told the teacher about him, and so she said to bring him in, and and she was really impressed with him, and then she said that because he's older, he was going to have to be ahead of me. Well, I was not going to have that. So I always timed his practice and I always made sure I played five minutes more and I listened to his piano lesson and I made note of everything the teacher said to him so I could do all the things that she complained about. So yeah, that's how it all started and so during your life.

Caroline Balinska:

So there you were at six learning the piano, and then we started off with you coming into retirement age and then you decided to go into piano. So what happened in those years between you were playing in the church, you said.

Benita Rose:

Well, there were a lot of things that went on. I actually jumped a few grades in school because I had to keep up with my brother, so they were reading. I had to read when I was three and I had to do up with my brothers, so they were reading. I had to read when I was three and I had to do math too and all that kind of stuff. And so, you know, when I started kindergarten, I had one of those kind of, shall we say, life-defining moments.

Benita Rose:

That was maybe not such a positive one for me, but I was. You know, I was a pretty happy-go-lucky kid and I joined the kids at snack time and there was a girl there and she said to all the other girls at the table that she saw me after school the day before. And there I was. There was Benita riding her squeaky old bicycle.

Benita Rose:

I know that doesn't sound like a terrible thing, but it was just the way she said it and I had had a good life, so I hadn't really experienced anything negative, and it just really cut to my core and I ended up with selective mutism, which is a very, very severe social anxiety, and I don't know if you've read about it at all, but it only happens in certain environments. So a child could have this and people at home would not necessarily know about it, because at home you're being a chatterbox, yeah, you're safe, and then I would get on the bus and I would just stop talking and I just um, carried on like this, where you're never going to believe this because it sounds so crazy to me. This went on for like 20 years through graduate school and I didn't even really Did the teachers, say anything to your parents along the way.

Benita Rose:

One teacher said to my mother that my social skills were not good, and so my mother was very upset about it because she wanted a perfect report. You know, she had four kids and I'm sure that it was very hard for her because, you know, I have a daughter. That was plenty challenging for me and she's a great girl. And so she told me, when it's recess time, you know, make sure you just go join in one of the games or whatever. So you know that is what I did.

Benita Rose:

I'd go over to, you know, the kickball game and you know, I guess you know, from a distance it may have appeared that I was doing something. Yes, yes, doing something, yes, yes, and yeah. So I didn't even realize that this was so bad until when I was an adult I got a church job and people would talk to me afterwards and they would say, oh, I knew you in school, you talk. All of a sudden they were saying like she talks, she talks, wow. And then I started reflecting back and I was like wow, you know, I really didn't talk to anybody, I just went about like a little mouse, just went about. You know my business. I was often asked to play and the piano became my voice and I really developed in that area and I think eventually, as I gained confidence in that, I think it eventually transferred to who I am now. I think that you know it became my, you know my mode of expression.

Benita Rose:

So, and your safety and yeah, there's probably a lot of different things grade. The teacher asked who would like to play with the ball at Reese's time and I actually got up the courage to raise my hand and the teacher just looked at me and she said I'm not giving it to you, I'm going to give it to somebody who's going to be playing with a lot of kids or something, and so that would have been like a step in the right direction. But that just kind of shut me back down again, like okay, you know, that wasn't worth it. And I just remember, even like being in my music theory class in college, and music theory of college level is a very challenging class, especially with this one professor that we had. He was notorious for being very, very tough.

Benita Rose:

Music theory at college level is a very challenging class, especially with this one professor that we had. He was notorious for being very, very tough. And at one point I was like I think I'm going to fail this class. I've got to do something. I've got to do something. And I finally got up and I went to talk to him after class and before I could say a word, he just started yelling at me. I was wondering when you were going to show up over here, you know, and he just chewed me out so badly. I don't remember anything else from my meeting with him. I certainly don't remember learning something, I just remember just being scared out of my mind.

Caroline Balinska:

So I did pass From your skill. Yeah.

Benita Rose:

It was. I always played piano excellently and other than the music theory class I was an excellent student. But, you know, when it came time for me to even get like recommendations for graduate school, I couldn't even get any. When I look back I'm like I can't believe it. I couldn't get any recommendations and I know it was because I was being so antisocial. Being so antisocial, I did a lot of playing, you know, all along. I would, you know, accompany 17 recitals a semester and accompany 30 juries, besides all my solo piano stuff that we had to do.

Benita Rose:

But yeah, it was tough, it was a very, very challenging time. But I think, you know, when I went off to college I had to really start, you know, fending for myself and you know, sometimes necessity is the mother of invention, invention. And, believe it or not, I eventually landed a church job that was a music directorship, which involved singing, and what happened was, you know, I'm the type of person like if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. Well, I signed up for voice lessons and that really helped me because it really, you know, freed up. You know everything that was tense. So I highly recommend it to anybody who has this problem. As crazy as that sounds, it helped me a lot.

Caroline Balinska:

And how do you think you have raised your daughter because of all of that?

Benita Rose:

I think I don't know so much about how I raised her, because we still talk about that. You know the usual mother-daughter conflicts. Sometimes you do something opposite of what your mom did because you didn't think something was so good for you. But I do think about how it makes me interact with my students and when I was teaching at the college I was always very sensitive of other people and what they may be going through and the fact that they may be going through something I don't know about. So I always proceeded with a lot of encouragement. If they had performances, I always made sure that they saw the hall, that they tried the piano, that we tried to simulate whatever they may encounter in that performance so that nothing throws them. Just to keep them as comfortable as possible, I would bring them snacks and everything before. You know our convocations at the college and stuff.

Caroline Balinska:

All those things that didn't happen for you.

Benita Rose:

I just made sure I was very, very nurturing. At least I thought I was.

Caroline Balinska:

Yeah, but at the same time you explain all of that and while there's all of that negativity around it, it's probably a lot of it that helped drive you to that next level as well.

Benita Rose:

Yes, and one of the things that I reflect on is that obstacles in our lives are really our superpowers, because they give you a chance to have a unique perspective. A unique perspective and so many times we think that something that's happening to us is so bad, but it's really part of our journey. And so many times you know, we want, you know we're on our way to the Wizard of Oz and we want the Oz, and the Yellow Brick Road was actually the Wizard of Oz and we want the Oz and the Yellow Brick Road was actually the wonderful journey. And I was thinking that, you know, when my mother heard about these recitals, the tour of the school, I was so excited to tell her about that. I thought she was going to be so proud of me, but it wasn't enough for her. It wasn't enough. It was not where Vladimir Horowitz or Yujo Wang would be playing.

Benita Rose:

You know, was this the school? Or even when my teacher wanted us to give solo recitals at age six now when I look back, I was like, wow, you know, she really thought well of me to, you know, to have me do that or to suggest that. And my mother, she kind of felt like, well, it's just going to be at the church and we're just going to invite our friends. She wanted it to be Carnegie Hall right then and there. And those days are actually were not those kind of opportunities Like these days are so many competitions for young people, there are just so many opportunities, but this was like a really tremendous thing. And what I advise parents is you have to enjoy the journey, and if you just think you're going to enjoy it when you get to that big hall, then it's not for you.

Caroline Balinska:

Yeah, I actually had this conversation with a mother just this morning actually. So my daughter is extremely tall. She's already two sizes bigger than her height, so she's crazy tall. And one of her best friends is very, very tiny and they're five years old and yesterday they had their first day at gymnastics and my daughter's been wanting to do it. That's fine. She's got a half sister who's done gymnastics. So I've been around that.

Caroline Balinska:

I got barred from gymnastics when I was like nine. I tried. I got told to stop doing ballet when I was like eight because I was too tall. My mom had sent me to like the top ballet school and there it was about being a ballerina on the stage, not about just doing ballet for fun. So that teacher had pretty much said Caroline needs to stop because she's going to be too tall. And when I tried to do gymnastics and I went to the gymnastic school where my friends were at and the teacher said sorry, there's no point, you're too tall. So I know that experience, I know what it's all about and so these days it doesn't happen anymore. They let kids do these sports. It doesn't matter how tall they are. They're not doing it because of what you're going to become when you're older. It's about the, like you said, the journey along the way. And so, with my daughter, I'm letting her do her. She wants to do gymnastics. That's fantastic.

Caroline Balinska:

She went yesterday. And, ava, if you're watching this when you're older, I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound rude, but she was not very good, but I was so happy for her. She's too tall and too lanky. So she's there like all the other kids are jumping around properly, and she's just too tall and lanky. And this other little girl who is from her class is very, very tiny and she was excellent and gymnastics, professional gymnastics kids are, or people are, very short, so it goes with being in gymnastics.

Caroline Balinska:

And anyway, this morning I ran into that mother and I said, oh, your daughter, because she wasn't there. I'd seen her. I was taking photos for a daughter and I said, oh, your daughter was amazing yesterday. I said, you know, unlike my daughter, who was just too tall, and that mother laughed like um, laughed in a way like how could you say something so horrible about your daughter? But I'm like, hey, it's just the truth. Like I don't need her to become famous as a gymnastics person. I don't need any of that. I'm just so happy that she's enjoying it, and that's all I need from this experience, for her is nothing more than that, and I think not enough people look at it like that. They want their child to be the best. The child has to be the best. If my child's not the best, I'm ashamed of my child and it's like I don't need my daughter to be the best, I just want her to have fun.

Benita Rose:

Yes, and you know that training factors into who you become, and I think you know you're talking about the gymnastics, like being comfortable in your body and everything and knowing how to use your body and everything can only be a good thing.

Caroline Balinska:

Exactly. She'll get exercise, she'll learn different things, she learns balance, like the lesson she'll learn from. That is amazing. I actually learned piano when I was um, I was probably seven or eight when I went to piano and I'm upset because my mom I at some stage was like I don't want to do it anymore. My mom was like, okay, fine, but I was actually really good, like I was when I listened to you. They got me to do recitals and all that from a young age and my mum would have me like playing in front of other people as well. Like everyone was like, wow, she's actually really good, but I didn't continue it. But I think there's something. Yeah, I know.

Benita Rose:

Sign up now. Stop doing it.

Caroline Balinska:

Maybe I'll be the one going to Barcelona to play this year, but there's something about the journey. There's something really about the journey, and what you just mentioned was and the way you said that you weren't talking about you didn't say learn to sing so you can have a beautiful voice. You didn't even mention. I don't even know if you've got a good voice or not, but what you did speak about was what it opened up for you, and that's about the journey.

Benita Rose:

Yes, yes, absolutely, Absolutely. And also, you know, seemingly unrelated things are related, and I have so many former students come back and tell me that learning to prepare their recital piece helped them with their PhD dissertation. So like who would have thought that right?

Caroline Balinska:

No, because it's about yeah, it's about practicing something, doing something, well, looking at all the different angles on it. Doing a big project. I'm such a big believer in that, and whether it's that you are passionate about your garden or you're passionate about something else, it does. I think that everything does follow through from each other, and whether we're doing it when we're five or whether we're doing it when we're in our 40s and 50s, then I think that we can make a big difference in our lives.

Benita Rose:

Yes, and I know my daughter said that what she learned from me in piano helped her with her running.

Caroline Balinska:

Wow.

Benita Rose:

I don't quite remember what it was, Maybe it was something about alignment and posture and things like that. But so many times when I think back, my mother said she did not want me to do anything else but piano because we were going to be serious with piano. But when I think of those interests that I had that we didn't follow up on, I think that those would have been positive. Now, that being said, my mom was a wonderful mom. She was my biggest fan and when I look back, I don't know if I would have overcome any of this without her, because she had such a belief in me like unbelievable. So anytime I had a rough day, I can still, you know, hear her, you know in my mind, you know, just rooting for me rooting for me.

Caroline Balinska:

Yeah, so I love it. I love the way you I'm so glad you said that, because it could have come across that your mom was too hard on you, but you're saying that even her wanting the best for you, that she wanted so much for you and she wanted the best for you. That probably helps you become the person that you are.

Benita Rose:

Yes, and the thing is this one of the things that I always remember is whether or not I thought what she did was good. It's kind of irrelevant, because everything she did was from a place of love. So I think if we can embrace that I mean, nobody is perfect and we make choices and decisions out of love, you know, for our children, and you know they'll go through their times of rebelling because they didn't like mom made them do this or mom didn't make them do this.

Caroline Balinska:

You can't win, can you yeah?

Benita Rose:

It's a place of love, you know so. So it's a win.

Caroline Balinska:

Yeah, I love it, and so tell me more about where you are now. So you said that you went back into this whole new journey when you were right at that time of retiring, and what does life look like for you now? So your husband's happy that you're doing this, and are you going to be doing this for the rest of your life, or do you plan on stopping, because you're doing a lot of traveling and you're doing a lot of moving?

Benita Rose:

yes, I am, I'm going to keep on. I'm going to keep on as long as I'm able and, uh, I I'm loving it and I feel like I'm living my best life. And a lot of people that I meet that are older are kind of sadly, you know, wilting or becoming depressed or feel like their best days are over. But see, they're not, because, no matter what you do, you can keep growing and you can keep learning, and I feel like when you get those hunches to do something, you should just go for it, definitely, investigate it. And I was even thinking about, you know, this music that I found by Marcos Fernandez Barrero, but, like I entitled my CD Libre, free at Last.

Benita Rose:

It's about being free, being free to do what you want just because you feel like doing it, and that's a good reason. In fact, I just made a post on Threads saying enjoyment is a good reason. Enjoyment is a reason Because people were talking about should you do something. Is that a good enough reason? Like it is a reason because people were talking about should you do something. Is that a good enough reason? Like it is a reason you enjoy it.

Caroline Balinska:

Do it, assuming it's not some illegal and is your husband travel with you when you travel? If he's?

Benita Rose:

yes, he is a school music teacher and he is a professional classical saxophonist.

Caroline Balinska:

What a home to live in, amazing.

Benita Rose:

Yeah, so we performed at the World Saxophone Congress and it was in China, and so he was there. We played together. But you see, I should tell you I did a lot of playing with him, but see, I did not want to be the woman behind the man. My husband has performed for four US presidents and every time we played together people would say you're very good, but Tony. So I told Tony that I need to do this myself. I still perform with him, but I wanted to establish myself as a solo performer.

Caroline Balinska:

Are you noticing a little bit of a pattern there, your brother, your husband needing to be better than them. Well, um, it's like they're helping you. Um, you know, we wake up in the morning some mornings and we're like, oh, I should really go to the gym, but I can't be bothered. But sometimes you need that little boost, you need that little kick in the butt to say you're going to go and do that and it's like you've had these like little people, like these people, little kicks in the butt all the time for you. Like with your husband it's like, hey, you're're good, but I can be great as well and I want to prove it.

Benita Rose:

It's like you're way of proving yourself, yeah, yeah and uh. Yeah, actually I'm the boss of the duos and he, he is an absolutely wonderful musician. So but yes, I wanted to do it myself.

Caroline Balinska:

I love it, I love it. I would love to be in your home when it's like to like, yeah, you guys just chilling out playing instruments, I think that's wonderful.

Benita Rose:

Well, there's a lot of work involved. You know at this level there's a lot of work. So you know my daughter always laughs because she says people always say to her like, oh, it must be so wonderful to be in your house. And you know, I guess she didn't think so because we always had to do. You know our work and you know there's always a lot of maintenance work you need to do to keep your skills truly intact and there's always, you know, new programs to work on, old programs to maintain. It's just a lot, but if you love it it's fantastic.

Caroline Balinska:

That's what they say Choose a passion. It's like you never work a day in your life.

Benita Rose:

Yes, yes, I don't work.

Caroline Balinska:

I play. I love it. Fantastic Benita. That is a lovely story. I love it. I think it's fantastic and I love the motivation for other women out there that are sitting there thinking you know, we're told once we get into. You know the whole history of once you hit menopause. We're old and we're finished and we're not needed on this earth anymore. But I love the fact that we have to look at life in another way and say, hey, there's something out there.

Benita Rose:

No, we have a lot to bring because we have all that experience. Whether you're in music or in life, we have so much wisdom and we need to share it. We need to be out there. There's, you know there's a lot more than youth to be offered and you know looks are a. You know looks are a forever changing thing and we have so much to offer.

Caroline Balinska:

I just you know, when I just think about experience I already said that, but it means a lot. I love it. Well, I just took up kite surfing. I've been practicing for five years and I'm finally up and going, and there's no, I don't know another woman that started that so late in life and a couple of other women I know that have tried it at my age and it's quite a scary sport to start off doing. It's quite intense, um, so that's definitely something I've taken off and I've been saying I'm going to be a kite surfing grandma, so I'm going to be the woman out there in my aid when I'm joking. I probably I don't know, I would like to, but I think that, um, doing things that other people are not expecting from you is something that takes a lot of guts. I think that you probably did what you did, but at the same time, there was probably people out there saying to you what are you doing at this age? What are you doing now? And we need to just take that chance it makes us feel alive.

Benita Rose:

I find that, you know, when I kind of pulled back from it and I said this is really scary, why do I do it? But I just kind of got very bored and it makes me feel alive and we can either just be scared and just stay in our homes with our mouths shut, or we can be out there and we can feel everything, and some of it will be a little scary and some of it will be exciting and we'll have the whole gamut, but we're alive.

Caroline Balinska:

Yeah, yeah, no, that's why I named this podcast Life on Purpose over 40. It's really about living life on purpose and waking up every day with a purpose and whatever that is, and for everyone it's different, but I love the fact that you found an amazing purpose and something that changes other people's lives as well, because music is such a beautiful, intense thing.

Benita Rose:

Well, that's when I realized that my music brings joy to people. That just meant so much to me. Amazing. So I'm going to. I have a lot of recitals coming up. I'm going to be presenting at an international conference in Madrid in November and I already have bookings for Europe next summer. Oh, great. Yes, and so I've overcome a lot of things selective mutism, ageism, prejudice against women, fear of traveling.

Caroline Balinska:

And you spend all that time on a plane. Yeah, definitely comfortable going to sleep. Yeah, you'll have to come and visit me. I'd love to actually meet you in person, so hopefully that would be awesome that would be awesome venita, it's been lovely having you. I love your story. I'm going to share in the show notes links to your Spotify account, to your website, so anyone can reach out to you and I'm on.

Caroline Balinska:

YouTube and Facebook. I'm all over the place Fantastic. I'll share all that and threads. I'm loving threads as well, so I'll definitely share your threads in there as well. And, you know, if someone's traveling in Europe next summer, then they can spot you somewhere over there in Europe so they can get hold of your I guess your recitals that you've got next year as well.

Benita Rose:

Great Fantastic.

Caroline Balinska:

Thanks, monita, thank you for your time.

Benita Rose:

It's been nice talking to you.

Caroline Balinska:

Nice talking to you too, and thanks everyone for watching. Bye for now.

Benita Rose:

Bye-bye.