Marylee started playing piano at the age of 9 and a few short years later began playing and singing in church, where she was encouraged and mentored by her uncle ron who always encouraged her to step out and try new things with her music, and always believed in her even when she didn’t.  She believes she would not be where she is today without his input in her life and for that she is thankful.

A couple of years after graduating from High School Marylee decided to embark on a new adventure by going to Victory Bible College in Calgary Alberta. (Marylee highly recommends this college www.vbci.com) It was here that she really began to step into a new level of music. During the course of a two year music program at VBCI she was given many opportunities to lead worship, direct bands, and tap into many other parts of media that she had never tried before.  Marylee’s eyes were opened to music in a new way, and she realized there was so much more to music than just playing or singing. It really is an art. Some pieces are slow and take time to intricately put together, while other pieces come together so quickly. You have to learn to see beyond to ordinary. Reach beyond your grasp if you want to achieve something great in music. Marylee’s College years opened her up to that.

After college Marylee was recruited to be the Youth leader at a Victory Church in Edmonton, Alberta, where she continued to be mentored by a great musician. This is where her first song was birthed.  Although she had tried putting pen to paper before – and had succeeded, she had never shared any of her work with people.  The song she wrote, simply called “Victory”, quickly became a theme song for Victory Churches throughout Canada, and spreading into the United States.  This song, like most of the songs she writes, came out of a personal experience from her life.  Marylee’s motivation for writing is God! Sometimes the songs come straight from Scripture Verses, sometimes from personal experience and sometimes from a message preached on a Sunday morning - key phrases or words that energize her heart and move her to write.

Marylee currently resides in the great State of California, USA where she is the Worship Leader/Director at California Victory Church.  She continues to be musically challenged and stretched in new ways and in areas she didn’t realize she needed stretching in. This has been a place of many mountains.  Through these challenges she has not given up but has been motivated to reach beyond her grasp.

As a musician there is ALWAYS room for improvement.  If you feel like you have gone as far as you can go then you have closed your eyes to the immensity of the world of music.