A cat lover, Carter started with the oboe in fifth grade after hearing Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and thinking the cat was portrayed by the oboe (the oboe actually represented the duck).

Renda Horn first taught her the oboe; she now takes lessons from Eva Saulitis.

“I’ve always liked playing music and listening to music, and I just went from there.”

At Homer Middle School, she played the saxophone “because you can’t play the oboe in jazz band.”

“I’ve always wanted to play the bassoon. I have that special calling for double reeded (wind instruments with two reeds in the mouthpiece).”

Carter has been to youth band, choir and orchestra camps in Fairbanks and upstate New York.

• Future plans: Carter plans to go to college and study music, and is thinking about a career in music.

“Maybe. I think it would be pretty hard to do, but it would be really cool. When I was little I wanted to be a jazz oboist. That dream pretty much died. It’s hard to improvise on an oboe.”

Her dream musician job? “Classical music, in an orchestra.”

“Teaching would be very cool. Combining music and teaching would be really cool.”

• Importance of music: “It’s definitely changed from when I was little. I used to hate to practice, practice. Now I do it willingly because I know it helps. I think it’s pretty important in my life.”

• Music she listens to: “Right now I’m listening to The Doors. I like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.”

• Other interests: She writes poetry and fiction and skis on the Homer High School cross-country ski team.