Not a poem but my passion!

Maya Angelou once said, “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the spaces between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”  For me music is my safe heaven where I am not afraid to live.  Music gives me life. Before birth, in my mother womb, I was introduced to the world of music. Growing up in the City of Detroit, music was everywhere! My mother, a heavy music listener, could not listen to all she wanted. Being pregnant with twin boys who would move to any up-tempo beat, would send her into premature labor. Concerned about the dancing twins in her stomach she started playing classical music to calm our spirits. From birth classical music has been a place where I can rest my heart, so my journey began.  When I was old enough I started singing. I was apart of the Detroit Boys and Girls Choir of Detroit. Here I began to learn how to read sheet music. Shortly after I stumbled across instrumental music and it changed my whole world for the better.

The first two instruments that grabbed my attention were Drums and Guitar, but it could not really hold my interest. In the sixth grade I attended Spain Middle School For the Fine and Performing Arts.  On my first day of school, I picked up a band class.  When the teacher asked what I wanted to play, my eyes rested on a trumpet. A couple of weeks later I joined the marching band. One afternoon at rehearsal I was warming up, when I looked around the room I realized there were a lot of trumpet players. Facing the instrument lockers. I saw a horn that was bigger than a trumpet but smaller than a baritone. I picked it up, put my mouthpiece in and began to play; the sound of it was so unique. I ask my teacher the name of this horn and could I play it. She replied,  “it’s called a Mellophone and yes you can play it.”  A year after marching seasons my band Director introduced me to the French horn. When I first saw it I was struck with so much curiosity. She gave me a mouthpiece and said try to make a good tone. I blew into the horn and instantly fell in love with the tone of the French horn.  My journey continued at the Detroit School of Arts where I was heavily influenced by Symphony’s and Orchestras.  My love for music skyrocketed, permeating throughout my entire being. I would practice my horns for hours during school, through lunch, and after school. Playing French horn puts me in a place where I can leave behind everyday struggles and stresses of life.

Growing up in the inner city of Detroit there wasn’t many outlets for young black men, except sports, which I could have been good at, but I didn’t feel it was worth my extra time.  Sports did not do for me what music did.  As said by Aldous Huxley, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible, is music.”  French horn gave me the ability to express myself, while hiding my true feelings between the lines and spaces and at the same time, share them with the universe.  My most influential performance in high school was a band and orchestra festival, where our band was formally invited to Ann-Arbor Michigan. There I realized all I wanted to do in life was to perform. Hence, my major when I get into college. Playing on stage gives me the opportunity to change a life by expressing a piece of music and a piece of myself.  I take pride in knowing that what comes out of my horn no one can touch and it can never be replaced. This feeling I hold dear to me and it fuels my passion. This passion opened my eyes and ears and led me on the path to out sourcing.  I played four years with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Civic program during high school and mentored for two years after. Performing has also given me a chance to travel all over the United States.  I am truly grateful for the chance to enjoy such a gift and to have been given the opportunity to absorb this universal language and share it with every heart that beats.