Aesthetic Experience

I guess it’s hard for me to think of just one aesthetic experience to put into words.  It’s honestly hard for me to put any aesthetic into words because it moves me inside.  That’s the power of music – it is moving!  Thinking back through the years, I remember an experience in 8^th grade.  I was singing in the middle school all county chorus.  At this concert, we performed first and then the high school all-county chorus performed second.  I remember hearing this piece of music, and I honestly don’t even remember the name of the piece.  But I remember being so incredibly moved by the music.  The chords, the way the voices blended, the soloists, the instruments used; all these combined to make this powerful performance.

There really was no “practical” purpose to the song other than it was a piece chosen in an 8-piece lineup and that used to showcase the “best” singers in the county.  The piece, however, left me in awe.  To this day I think about that experience as almost life changing.  I heard the beauty of the piece and just knew I was headed down the right path.  I remember thinking that I wanted to be in that choir; that I wanted to make music as gorgeous as that. 

What particularly caught my interest was the pure tone of the soprano singers.  At that point, I was used to singing with middle school choirs. And while we were also the “best” in the county, we were definitely still learning how to sing.  Hearing the high school sopranos sing up high and hit the correct notes really left me with feeling like I needed to continue singing.  It left me feeling that that music was part of me and that I needed to be there with them, singing that same song. 

I know that many people study music from elementary school and even into middle and high school, but few continue performing and learning music after they graduate from high school.  In this moment, I knew that I needed to continue in music for the rest of life.  I didn't know I wanted to teach at that time, but I knew that I wanted to do something with music as my career in life. I knew that I didn't want an ordinary 9-5 job.  I knew that it needed to have some kind of music as part of my daily work.