#021 - Origins - Pt. 3

MAY 2019

My high school chorus teacher is an amazing woman. Tonight I got to attend her last concert and it was a great reminder of the power of influence. She continues to profoundly influence my life nearly 20 years later and is a strong woman of God despite all things. I could go into detail about her life, but the short of it is she was not dealt the good hand, and things were not necessarily easy for her. She played the piano like Leonard Bernstein and could fill a room with warm, loving energy. 

When I was in my senior year of high school, she convinced me to join a select group of singers called a chamber chorus. It consisted of 12 people, 5 guys and 7 girls. Every single morning, my Senior year would start out with singing, and back then, I was struggling with severe symptoms of senioritis. You see I was an outsider to this group. All of them went through their entire high school career singing in chorus, and I a football player turned musical theater performer was seen as an unusual choice as the 5th male voice. Not to go into too much detail, it was even more unusual to have enough guys in 2006 to attempt such a feat. This was before Glee made it cool for guys to sing and dance.

Mrs. Peeples decided that I was a tenor, even though I didn’t have the range of a tenor. I mentioned starting every day during my senior year singing, and singers know how hard it is to warm your voice up at 6:30 in the morning. Hitting the high notes took everything within me, and to make matters worse, I was one of two tenors supporting the tenor line out of twelve people. The other tenor had been singing since he was born and could give any professional opera singer a run for their money. We were both the same age, but for some reason, I was intimidated by his natural ability to sing so effortlessly and flawlessly so early in the morning.

Looking back on it now, I probably would have never tried if she hadn’t convinced me that I could do it. But that is what a good teacher, a good educator, and a good woman of God can inspire in a person. Mrs. Peeples, or Peeps, as we so lovingly called her, was one of those rare birds that keep up with students on Facebook, always wishes me a happy birthday, and always remembers us all by name to this day. Great educators inspire greatness in their students. 

She also knows my love of frappuccinos or my past high school love.  

I mentioned my case of senioritis earlier. Since she was the first class of my day, I would frequently show up late or skip class if I didn’t feel like singing that morning. Or if I was late from going to Starbucks for my morning frappuccino. I think I had a record of 7-12 tardies or absences from her class, which she counted. She would take attendance electronically and hold off on sending it for ten to fifteen minutes after the first bell of the morning. Knowing I would almost always be a few minutes late to class. 

When I started my career in lighting and was trying to figure out who I was, she was always there to listen to my problems and encourage me, just like a great educator should.

Back to the Future. 

I’ve never put to paper my experiences as a number in the public education system in America. I’ve recounted stories numerous times to many teenagers in an on-demand fashion. Public schools either work or don’t work for the students, and it is up to a special group of people known as teachers to make up for this systemic failure.

Mrs. Peeples truly loved music education and teaching her students how to love music. No matter what their voice sounded like. She could always hear the good qualities in any voice and play to anyone’s strengths. That is the power of a good educator: seeing the gold in any student. Back then, it was hard for me to see how special it was to have a class so small at a school so big, and believe it or not, we got a lot of hate for it. 

Every year before the chamber ensemble, Peeps would select the best of the senior girls for a class called bel canto choir. Bel canto is traditionally sung by choruses made up of only women and is truly the beautiful singing its name implies. A chamber ensemble is more intimate and unique, seriously! I’m going into detail because my senior year was dominated by this, and my nostalgia is kicking in full swing. Bel canto traditionally sang the school’s song at pep rallies, which was a point of pride for any senior girl.

For four years, any chorus girl dreamed of the day they would get to join Bel Canto. It was Peep’s top class. Enough with the details, right? I’m a blonde. I was oblivious my entire high school career, so I was unaware of all of this until recently. When Peeps announced that she was doing Chamber instead, I’m sure all the upcoming senior girls thought she had lost her mind. 

When she asked me to join the class instead of taking another academic my senior year, I hesitated because I had never sung in a chorus before. Musical theater was different. There were lights and costumes all the time. Dances were more complex, and I could get lost in the performance. I needed to disconnect from the audience to perform, and I knew it would be a scary challenge to be a strong voice in such a small group. 

I remember the day Peeps asked me. We were wrapping up afternoon rehearsals for our spring musical that year, Anything Goes. I was worn out from learning how to tap dance for the second time in my life, and as I was grabbing my stuff and heading to my car, Peeps stopped me and asked what I was doing with my open class. Good seniors get such privileged openings in a normally rigid academic schedule. I could have taken AP Psychology and gotten a head start on college. If I were still playing football, it would have been used for a weight training class. It ended up being vocal weight training.

Peeps convinced me by saying how well I could hold down a part and that I had a strong power belter voice that works well with small groups. I could also hit a high A on a good day and took voice lessons. Two things that made me a great choice for the position. 

The reluctant tenor.

So, I became the second tenor in the group, and as I already mentioned, Stephan, the other tenor, was a pro. I’m pretty sure he won awards all the time for his vocal performances. The bass guys had all taken chorus three years previously, and one of the basses, Elliot, was dating one of the Sopranos at the time. Dayna, one of the Altos, had been turned down from another select class—musical theater, a class that I had been in for two years. 

The first day of my senior year was like the first day of high school all over again. 

I walked into her class with my new clothes and bookbag, not knowing what to expect. All the apprehension melted instantly when I realized what a good teacher she was and how lucky I was to be in such a position. Everyone knew me, but I didn’t know anyone there. 

Everyone there saw me as an outsider. I was just there to have a Slack class during my senior year. They were there because they were Peep’s favorite students. I was there because she needed another tenor, but most importantly, I was there because I needed her influence in my life. 

It’s funny when God does stuff like this, huh? 

Moses.

One of my favorite Peeps memories is her singing a song entitled “Moses, " a dramatic song and soliloquy where Moses and God are conversing about Moses being the chosen one to talk to Pharaoh. It was one of the rare times that she performed outside of class, and we were all shocked at her ability to sing, which we knew, but to act as well. Not to mention, all of this was for a breast cancer benefit, which made this song of overpowering your weaknesses even more powerful. 

Now, reflecting on it, it's easy to make life parallels. I’m gonna let you draw your conclusions on this one. My purpose in this writing is to hopefully inspire you with stories from my life to compare with similar memories. 

I spent the rest of the year working extra hours at an animal hospital and bouncing back and forth between that job, my main job at Stone Mountain Park, and chorus and theater practice. I was also playing in my church band and going to church twice a week for rehearsals. Chamber ensemble replaced the bel canto girls at gigs that they used to do, meaning now I was singing in front of the whole school, something I didn’t think about when I signed up. 

I’m here thinking, what on Earth have I gotten myself into? I’m not that great of a singer. I quit football and started doing musical theater instead, so now all of my football friends are forced to listen to me sing. Talk about a stressful situation.

This was all part of my senior year of high school. Since this writing is about my high school experiences, I feel I can go into a little detail about my less talked about and short-lived theater career. Don’t get me wrong. I loved every minute; it was an important part of my development. To this day, my diction is intentional, and my accent is generic. I say certain words the theater way, and most people can’t guess that I’m some redneck country boy from Montgomery, Alabama.

Continued in Origins - pt. 4