“I’ve been interested in musicals for a really long time. When I was in 6th grade, we did this project in theatre at Canyon Vista where we had to do a scene where we were singing along at the same time and I thought that was really fun. Later in the year we had to actually sing a song and my best friend and I sang a song from Wicked and that’s when the craze began. It clicked with me. I said, “I want to be that gal on stage.” The interesting thing about musical theatre opposed to other acting and music is your character doesn’t have subtext, you just sing all of it through song. In some ways, it’s easier because the audience doesn’t have to figure out what you’re saying but it’s harder because you have to sing and dance at the same time.” Rebekah Farris ’19

“I joined choir in 8th grade, in Canyon Vista. I originally took piano lessons up until 8th grade and I wasn’t really liking it, so my mom was like, ‘If you take choir, you don’t have to play piano anymore,’ so I took her up on that. I was thinking I’ll just do it for a couple years maybe and get my fine arts credit, but then I actually really liked it a lot so I kept going with it and now I actually play piano and sing. Music is something to take your mind off of things for a while. For me, in my church, I play for my worship band and play piano and sing, and it’s just a time to get away from what’s going on and express myself.” Christian Smith ’18

“This is my 10th year of playing the violin. Back when I used to live in Korea, I went to kindergarten and they brought violins for everyone to play and I was really interested so when I moved to America I continued. It’s really easy to express your emotions through the instrument with vibrato, and other things. In orchestra you can’t express as a soloist, and you have to tone down to match the rest and as a soloist you want to show off as much as possible whereas in orchestra it’s more about unity. Recently, I made All-State Orchestra and it was an amazing experience because I spent three days with people all over Texas playing.” GaEun Kim ’19

“I started percussion in 6th grade. I wasn’t planning on being super into it in high school but I really liked it. I was in the pit the first year; I played the vibraphone. I tried out for bass drum my sophomore year and I didn’t make it and I was really discouraged but I made it junior year and senior year. There’s only two other girls in the bass line. It’s kind of crazy to be a girl in drumline but I think it’s also really cool. Not a lot of people think that I would be on drum line because I’m so small but being around a ton of guys who are rowdy, they keep it fun and it takes my mind away from school. I think music adds an element of creativity and another level of cognition and mental ability and it adds interest to your life and especially marching band has the athletic, musical, and visual aspects and doing it with your friends make it a lot better.” Devika Kumar ’17

“When I was in kindergarten I was in a reception of my dad’s and they had a harpist in the corner, and I was kind of just staring at it and then I said, “I want to do that.” In middle school, they offered harp through the orchestra so I started playing then. It’s just out-of-this-world compared to the other instruments. It’s not a central piece but it’s certainly important in adding that extra sparkle that other instruments can’t. Music tells a story. You get so much out of just the sound. For me, that’s always been so impressive that you can bring so much emotion and feeling without showing anything or saying anything and yet everybody understands it.” Ariadna Demkov ’17

“I’ve been playing the piano for almost two semesters now. I started Piano I here. I’ve always seen those movies where some old guy is in the library, it’s thundering outside, and he’s playing the piano and I wanted to do that. It’s so intense, you know. For the final, we had to play in front of everyone and I messed up really bad but I made a recovery and everybody applauded for me and I felt like a king. What I like about piano is you can play both the bass part and the treble part at the same time, like both hands communicating to each other, rather than something like the violin, where you only play the melody or the harmony.” James Dong ’19