Bay Area flautist to tell story of triumphing over difficult past

MONTARA, Calif. (KGO) -- Viviana Guzman is a concert flautist, but her journey to the stage has been far from easy, in fact, it is an improbable success story.

Guzman will tell her story Saturday at the TEDxBerkeley at Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley.

Guzman was born in Chile with dislocated hips. Her condition was so severe that her parents sought treatment outside of their country at Stanford Hospital. Confined for months to a gurney and wheelchair, music became her escape.

From beatboxing, to the "Flight of the Bumblebee" to more classical inspirations, Guzman's love for music solidified on a hospital gurney.

"If they flipped me over on the hospital gurney where I lived, I could play the piano," she said.

In Santiago the doctors told her family that she was one of the worst cases they had seen and that she should go abroad.

Her parents brought her to Stanford Hospital and later Houston to undergo the first of many surgeries.

"After I got out of a body cast, I had to relearn how to walk so it meant I was in a wheelchair and the crutches and the cane and finally I was walking. Then the doctor would say, 'Oh, we have to do it again,'" Guzman said.

And once again, she had her music. Thanks to her talent and discipline, she eventually attended Julliard, focusing on the flute.

She has performed around the world and in 2014 received a Grammy nomination. She's lived in the Half Moon Bay area for 20 years. Today she is pain free and doesn't limp.

"The challenges transforms you," Guzman said. "You learn from them. They make you strong and they make your life colorful and magical."

And she reminded us one must always be grateful.