Academic Life - Social Life - Living With Roommates
Musical Life
Meaningful Musical Artifact
Musical History
Excellent High School Opportunities
My high school, Neuqua Valley, places a lot of importance on the music program, but not necessarily on awards. We currently hold seven Grammys, including being awarded the title of Grammy Gold Signature School in 2005, which denotes the best public school music program in the nation, of the schools that submit entrance tapes. We have also performed at the Midwest Clinic and on the Great Wall of China. But the emphasis in the classroom is always on striving not for awards, but for personal and ensemble bests. This attitude has had a huge positive impact on me and I feel that it will form the cornerstone of my own teaching philosophy.
Diverse Experiences
With my band in high school I was lucky enough to go on tour twice. My freshman year we came out east, stopping at Penn State before heading on to Gettysburg, Williamsburg, and then Washington D.C. My junior year we had the amazing chance to go to China. We traveled to Beijing and Xian, playing with high school, conservatory, and college bands. We ate with students and exchanged cultures, gave a performance actually on the Great Wall of China at Juonyong Pass, saw the terracotta warriors in Xian, not to mention touring Tienanmen Square, the Imperial Palace, downtown Beijing flea markets and countless other interesting places while we were there.
Below is a video with footage from our trip (and a lot of waiting in O'Hare airport for our 5AM flight!). It's a bit long, but it manages to condense 10 days of wonder into 7 minutes, so I would say it's worth giving a look.
Instruments and Interests
I have been playing clarinet since the age of ten and bass clarinet since freshman year of high school, playing both for marching and concert band. I also have an avid interest in learning other instruments, and have played trumpet in my high school's pep band. I picked up bari sax my senior year to try out jazz band, and have also been taking private lessons on trombone since February of 2007. Along with my interest in many instruments, since my sophomore year of high school I have known that I wish to become a music teacher, and to that end I conducted in pep band for three years and was the one senior in band selected to participate in an independent study course that had me teaching and grading small group lessons for the freshman bands as well as rehearsing and conducting a piece with one of the freshman bands in the spring of my senior year. I was also a section guide in marching band when I marched bass clarinet and a leader of the stage crew for the elaborate holiday concert my high school presents each year.
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Scan of a program from when I conducted one of the freshman bands in the spring of my senior year of high school.
Music at Penn State
I currently play in the Penn State Symphonic Band, the clarinet studio, and the Pride of the Lions basketball band. I'm also learning piano for the first time, continuing private trombone lessons, and also occasionally helping out the Campus Band. Also, I was recently elected Region 3 representative for PCMEA, which should be an exciting opportunity to meet other music education students from all over Pennsylvania.
