About a year and a half ago, the choir director at my school heard me sing Happy Birthday at an audition for a musical. Fast forward to now, I just graduated from high school and I was in my school’s highly selective jazz choir as well as symphonic choir. I have been seriously taking lessons since about March of 2014. I also have been actively learning how to play piano since I started singing as well, taking a couple lessons, but mostly learning myself and taking both semesters of Piano Lab at my school my senior year.
To be frank, my progress has been incredible. I have no music experience except being in the percussion section of my sixth grade band. My voice teacher, my choir director, my peers, and my family have noticed my immense progress. I do not believe it has all been due to natural talent; I could not even match pitch when I started. I just work really hard. That being said, I still do not know if I should even consider pursuing music as a career.
Quite honestly, I have never been so happy in my life and a lot of it has to do with music. I went through a bout of depression last summer and part of my senior year, and music has helped me so much.
My voice teacher seems to believe in me, but I don’t know if she has any reason to. I am going to be attending Middlebury College, so if I did major in music, it would be in a liberal arts context. There is no audition for a music major either. The voice teacher I will have at college has sent students to top conservatories and has had multiple students in Broadway shows and off-Broadway productions as well.
Is it ridiculous to think that in four years, I can prepare myself for top tier or semi top tier graduate programs in voice? I would probably want to perform for a bit, but really my end goal would be teaching at a college such as Middlebury.
I have faced a lot of people thinking it was ridiculous that I was starting to learn more about music and in particular, singing. The support from my friends was lackluster to say the least, but I really did not give a single care because music brought me so much happiness, and as a result, I have gotten a lot better, and I continue to get better every day.
If you could offer your thoughts on my situation, I would truly appreciate. Perhaps if you know of someone who was in a similar situation, you could talk about that as well.
Thank you so much,
Logan