My Beginning (Pt. 1): Why Music?

From a very young age, I was always surrounded by the world of music. My mother was a piano teacher for very young children, and I began playing the piano at age four. Years later, my sister joined the Childrens' Choir at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati, and as any young sibling does, I wanted to do what my sister was doing. And in fourth grade, my grandfather, a retired band director, gifted me a snare drum for Christmas, pushing me to join my elementary school's band.

These three facets of music, piano, choir, and band, all gave me unique experiences and opportunities with music, and helped me to fall in love with the art of creating it through performance. Years would pass and I would join more ensembles. While discontinued piano lessons at age 14, I continued with band into high school, placing in the highest band in only eighth grade. I joined the Cincinnati Boychoir, quickly making the top ensemble in seventh grade, touring to places like the American South to South Africa (the experiences of which could warrant another blog post!). After the Boychoir I joined my high school's choir program and dabbled in other ensembles like the theater program and jazz ensemble.

Outside of music, I was very strong academically, scoring well on several AP courses and achieving very high standardized test scores. I was really set to go into any field I wanted to. And I could have been a doctor or engineer, but I found that they wouldn't fill my life as much as music does. By around 9th grade, I knew I wanted to pursue music as my career.

But I didn't want to perform.

My two main performing outlets, percussion and choir, came with certain aspects that I didn't want to do. I don't like playing large ensemble pieces as a percussionist, and I am not confident in my snare drum skills. I mainly preferred playing marimba in marching band and drum corps, which could not really sustain a career. I enjoyed solo singing but it was never why I loved singing; it was about the choir. And I could go into a career as a professional chorister but I didn't want to. Neither of these options had appeal to me. And as for teaching, it also didn't sit right with me. I simply felt like I could not express who I was and what I was or if I was a classroom teacher or an ensemble performer.

So what could I do?

(continued in "Why Compose?")