Looking back on my life, it is hard to pinpoint an exact moment I decided to pursue music education as a career. From a young age music was present in my life, and I always knew it would remain with me into future. I am often asked why I chose to study music. Of course, there are many answers, but to me there was never a question of what I would do for a career. Music is the only thing in the world that will make me happy for the rest of my life. The passion I have for music is not something that can be contained or lost. I believe it is my duty to pass on the things I learned from my own teachers, to a new generation. In a rapidly changing economic and political climate, the role of the arts in schools is being questioned. The tragedy of music programs being cut is a reality. Music needs strong-willed teachers to survive. I may not know where my musical journey will take me, but I am certain that the decision to be an educator is the best one I have ever made. 

     I have been told that even at a young age I was always singing or interested in music. I can remember attending the Christmas pops concert the local orchestra would put on, or signing children’s choir at church. The first significant leg of my musical journey begins with the study of piano at age seven. Piano taught me much more than how to play a few songs, it gave me sight reading skills, music theory, music history, and an overall understanding of musical ideas that I would not come to appreciate until much later in my musical career. Of course, it was through the guidance from my piano instructors that I learned so much. Average instructors would not have been able to do what my teachers did. Their exceptional methods, encouragement, and outward love of music is what keeps be playing today. At around the same time I stopped taking piano lessons, I picked up two new musical loves, both vocal and instrumental. 

     My first real vocal training began when I joined the Evansville Children’s Choir at age eleven. The choir gave me something that, at the time, I did not realize I was missing. I had been making music on my own for years, but I had never really been a part of an ensemble. I fell in love with the choir experience because it gave me so many opportunities. Outside of performing across the state and frequently with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, what the choir gave me was the realization that there were other young people who loved music just as much as I did. Choir also instilled in me the confidence to express and perform, even going so far as to play the lead boy soprano role of Amahl in Carl Menotti’s opera Amahl and the Night Visitors. The instructors of the choir are those who first implanted in my mind the desire to teach. That interest would only be amplified as I progressed through beginning band in middle school.

     It was in high school that I truly discovered that music was the only possible career path for me. My first high school band experience started as many band students’ do, in the summer, for marching band. I did not know what to expect at first, being from Indiana, I knew marching band was important to the state, but I could not have possibly known what I was getting into. The directors I had at Castle High School transformed me from just a student who liked music to a future music educator. Marching band was a huge part of developing my mindset to study music. It taught me time management, team work and leadership skills. My senior year I was band president, which came with many opportunities and challenges that I know will transfer into my teaching career. The marching band introduced me to the activity of Drum and Bugle Corps. Three summers of which gave me many experiences and connections with other musicians and educators, further cementing in my mind that music is what I want to do. 

     High school was not all marching band. My directors were always teaching musical skills in all the ensembles. The jazz ensembles allowed me to continue to play piano in a new style that introduced me to improvisation. I was blessed with a director who loved jazz and saw its importance in the band world. Concert band is where I honed my musicianship. The passion that my directors taught and conducted with was always so intriguing to me. With every beat of the baton, I desired to be the one waving it. The instructors of Castle High School were the ones who pushed me to take private lessons. And after four years of horn lessons, through the encouragement of my teacher, I participated in the Indiana All-State Orchestra, an experience I would not trade for the world. 

     Throughout my years, I have had the benefit of being surrounded by quality musicians and instructors. Nothing has affected my growth as a person the way music has. I owe everything I know to the many teachers who worked tirelessly to provide their students with superior programs. Using the methods I have learned from them and further develop myself, I will give the gift of music to future generations of students. It is now my turn to be the inspiration that lead me to pursue music education.