It was fitting that Meredith Duke's fascination with music started in a car.

“When I was a child I would sit in the backseat of my parents' car and make up songs,” she said. “My mom and dad would look at each other and say what a pity it was that I loved music so much, but I couldn't sing.”

Duke continued to sing, however, and people began to notice.

“My music teacher kept naming me the student of the week,” Duke said. “My parents asked my teacher if that's something she did for all the students. She said 'No, she's got it.'”

Her parents wasted little time in getting Duke to start plucking the strings of guitar. A year later she was behind a piano. Then a cello, a flute, a piccolo, a trombone and so on.

It seemed that when she set out to learn one instrument she came upon another.

“Just like that, plans change,” she said. “There are so many little decisions that seem to have nothing to do with anything, and they wound up shaping me as a person and musician.”

Now Duke's music career has her taking to the road again. Duke, who has been the band director at Boothbay Region High School for 13 years, will move to Nashville, Tenn., at the end of the school year to begin her pursuit of a professional music career.

For now, Duke is on her farewell tour.

“Nashville called last summer,” she said. “We began to make plans last summer, but I've had this year to say goodbye.

“This is an incredible place to be. I don't know what path I'm going to follow, I just know Nashville is the place to be.”

Duke, a 2002 graduate of the University of Southern Maine, has only had one job since graduating, and that has been at the helm of the Boothbay High School band.

While she still has months before she heads to Tennessee, Duke said the leaving will be hard.

“It's not that I'm choosing to leave, it's that I'm choosing to follow a dream,” she said. “I hope my students see me and say 'If she can do it, so can I.'”

Duke said she isn't sure yet if that road leads her to a female vocal group, a solo career, country or Christian contemporary, she said she just knows it's time to go where the road leads her.

“It's very scary,” she said. “There are a lot of unknowns, but that's exciting, too.

“I try to not let the fear of the unknown talk me out of what I want to do.”