My motivation

Music is more than a hobby; music is a lifestyle, a religion. All things natural to the human being personify within a combination of twelve pitches. All things limited by words, thrive in a language of notes and phrases—joy through Mozart, elegance through Chopin, suffering through Schumann. To reach the epitome of human emotions, to compete for perfection against my toughest opponent, and to bring the world with me, this is my goal. As poetry is to prose, music is to life; experience opposed to demonstration. I believe I have found my higher power, my path towards infinite possibility. To perform would be to work toward answering all the questions in order to deliver the audience to the truth.

I believe in a connection between the mind and the body, between one’s life and one’s music. To understand and live in a piece of music, one must jump off a cliff, so to speak; have courage. Truly, a performance is the most vulnerable of presentation; one’s entire world, at the risk of being rejected by the audience or even worse, discouraged by one’s self.

As an eighteen year-old girl who has lived in a small town in New Jersey her entire life, I have had a difficult time finding inspiration as well as a medium through which I may flourish. I was lucky enough, throughout the past four years, to have found Mannes College of music. I can honestly say that this godsend gave me an identity, the only one in which I identified myself throughout highschool. My teacher at Mannes gave me the confidence to approach music honestly and the strength to admit that I could only be capable of greatness if I could value the process. She was not only my teacher but also my friend, one of many. Most of them were from the senior chorus, all of which made up more of a family than anyone could ever expect from a group of people that had the history of merely four years. Yet, they taught me much of what I know about life. Mr. Brady stands as an inspirational musician, mentor, and friend. He and my friends at Mannes College will be friends of mine throughout my life. I will always acknowledge them as the foundational building blocks of whom I am now and who I become in the future. Come fall I will be attending a conservatory in Massachusetts, Longy school of music. As excited as I am about this opportunity, going to Massachusetts was a scary change of plans. But Recently, I have told Mr. Brady that this chorus motivated me to share my experiences here with musicians there; most importantly, remind me to open my heart to new things and people. In the mean time, I can only aspire to manifest what I feel as a musician, into a tangible collection of vibrations that enables me to grab hold of the concert halls temporary walls and catch the audience in a gasping breath, just long enough to inspire a feeling, a thought. Keep this in mind for our final concert. Let it truly be an experience-- because what else are we but an organized series of human emotions? I cannot think of a more efficient contribution to humankind.