Gabrielle Shelton Christopher Flavin Composition I 18 September 2013 For My Love of Music The first time I saw a cello,

I fell completely in love. I was in fifth grade and was part of an elementary program to expose children to orchestra and classical instruments, so that they could later be in the middle and high school music programs. The orchestra teacher from the high school, Mr. Jackson, came every Thursday to let us play violins for about 30 minutes, and then we would watch him play his cello. It was the most amazing thing to me, and I looked forward to it every week. I loved it more than any sport that I was in at the time, and as soon as middle school enrollment came around, I signed up for orchestra. Nobody in my family was very musical except for my uncle, who was an outcast in the family, so my parents were surprised that I had such an interest in music. I enrolled and chose to play violin. I borrowed a tiny, cheap, school violin that I proceeded to name Sunset. I treated Sunset like a Stradivarius. I loved that violin more than anything, and protected, cleaned, and brought it home with me to practice every single day. I continued to play violin through school for the next few years, and somewhere along the way I also fell in love with the game of golf. I began to play and practice golf more and more. When I went to junior high, I signed up for the golf team. All people that have played golf before know that it is the most frustrating sport in the world. One cannot practice golf seriously without another outlet to act as a buffer. Music acted as that buffer. My parents expected me to practice, and be good at golf. They spent thousands of dollars for me to do so, but they didnt expect

anything from me musically. Music was and is my child. Everything about how I played was a product of me. I chose to learn. I chose to practice. I chose to seek out instruction. Music was unlike golf completely. I was motivated by myself to practice violin, and I was motivated by my parents to practice golf. As I got better at golf and violin, I began to look at going to college for both. I didnt know which one I would end up doing, but I pursued both as usual. My academics allowed me to go to most schools, so I was only limited by my options with violin or golf. I started to look at schools like Indiana State University, Rice, and Oklahoma State for music, and wasnt really sure where to go for golf. My parents, of course, were hoping I would choose golf, but I really couldnt make a decision at the time. I had always loved violin, but I didnt know if I wanted to continue to pursue my golf career, and pressure to make my parents happy had been making me lean toward playing golf. As time went by, I continued to play both golf and violin, and excelled in both. My junior year I made it to All-State for orchestra. I was one of three people in my 50 person orchestra that made it to All-State. At the same time, summer was about to begin, and I had to play golf really well in the summer tournaments to be recruited by the schools I was looking at. I had to start practicing golf, and stop playing violin as much as I wanted. When summer began, I played in a tournament and had a friend of mine caddy for me. She had just signed with Northeastern State, a school I had never really looked at, and convinced me to send an email to her coach, Scott Varner, who is from the same town as me. I sent Scott Varner an email the next day, and attached my tournament resume. Expecting it to take about a day to get a reply, I was surprised when I received an email an hour later. We immediately set up an official visit day, and I came to Northeastern State a week later. I instantly loved the college golf atmosphere. It was a lot

more team-oriented than orchestra and anything I had looked at with a music program. I felt like I would be getting more one-on-one attention with college golf, and could excel much faster at golf in that kind of environment than I could with orchestra. After my visit, I returned home with a positive outlook on college golf. I was motivated to practice golf on my own, and to pursue my parents hopes that I play college golf. I practiced golf more than ever, and only played violin when it was too dark to play golf. Shortly after that, a man named Chris Crehley, who is good friends with our orchestra teacher, Mr. Jackson, came from Wisconsin to guest conduct us for a week. This was the most brutally honest man I had ever met. Though he had good intentions of making us better, and didnt mean to offend us, he was incredibly blunt. I instantly loved his conducting and teaching. He refused to sugar-coat anything, and would shoot straight to the point of everything. I received a few private lessons that week just to take advantage of a profound and honest violinist, and while I left feeling completely inadequate, I appreciated every critique he gave me. He changed the way I played drastically, and it paid off instantly. As my senior year went on, I still had to make the decision to play golf or in an orchestra in college, and time was running short. Just as it was coming down the line to make a decision my orchestra and I went to Chicago for our senior trip. We were going to play in a music festival for high school bands and orchestras across the country. As the best orchestra in Oklahoma, we were invited. We were going to perform Edvard Griegs Peer Gynt Suite No.1, which we had practiced an hour and a half a day for three months. Typically, when practicing a piece for this amount of time, the players lose passion and interest for the piece, and begin to play it worse after every practice, but it was the opposite for us. Mr. Jackson, who originally recruited all of us for this orchestra, would continue to hold our interest in the piece by giving us details about the

story behind it. When we went to Chicago, we practiced for hours and hours in our hotel ballroom, we rehearsed with four of the best guest conductors you could find, and eventually were ready to perform. The second day we were there we went to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform in Orchestra Hall on Michigan Ave. Combining the performance and the architecture of the Orchestra Hall, it was the most beautiful musical experience I had up to that point in my life. I thoroughly fell in love with orchestra again. I fell in love with violin again and realized what exactly it meant to me. I went to bed that night once again not knowing what I would do regarding my decision for school, but I was satisfied in my momentary awe of music. The next day was time to perform. We rehearsed at the hotel, got on the bus, and rode to Orchestra Hall. All of us were excited. Nobody seemed nervous. Even if we butchered Griegs work in contest, on one of the biggest stages in the world, it didnt even compare to the experiences we had while learning and perfecting the piece together. Right before we got on stage, Chris Crehley appeared in our rehearsal hall with his entire orchestra. They had all rode on a bus from Wisconsin to see us perform. Mr. Crehley surprised us completely, and began hugging us. We were so ecstatic. It was now our turn to go on the stage and perform. We walked on and sat down. It was the most beautiful stage I had ever seen. I looked up into four beautiful balconies, decorated with red velvety seats and ivory accents with red drapes hanging from each side. The stage was very open to the audience, and for those sitting in the top balcony, we would be so far below, and so exposed that one could see each of us perfectly. Behind us was the largest organ I had ever seen, with three huge sets of pipes lining each side of the stage. The directors of the music festival presented us to the audience, and we were ready to play. We all gave each other nervous smiles back and forth, and as Mr. Jackson gave the downbeat, bow hit the string. We began to play the

first movement, Morning Mood. We completely owned the melody, and played it the best we had ever played. I was so surprised by how perfect it went. Everyone in the audience seemed very pleased. The next movement we played was Ases Death. Historically, this piece was the most emotional piece I had ever played, and I knew we were going to capture the audience. We began playing and immediately I felt overwhelmed by emotion. The movement is a representation of the main character, Peer Gynts mothers death. By the last note, half of our orchestra, including me, was crying. We all looked up to Mr. Jackson, and smiled because we knew we nailed it. Looking into the audience we saw countless faces crying with us. Finishing the entire concert with Hall of The Mountain King, we were elated. Standing up and bowing to the audience was the most surreal moment of my life. Almost as soon as we left the stage, we received the results from the contest. We won. Every comment we received was overwhelmingly positive. All of us were screaming from excitement. We completely nailed the most challenging music we had ever played on the most elaborate stage most of us would ever play on. Already late at night, we had to rush to get on the bus, and then suddenly left Chicago. The entire night while riding on the bus, I was thinking about my decision regarding college. I loved violin so much and Chicago was the most amazing musical experience I could ever ask for. Because I loved violin so much, I made the decision to play college golf. The experience of playing violin in orchestra would go unmatched, and I decided that I didnt want to exploit what I really loved for scholarship money. I was afraid to exploit my love of violin and never enjoy it the same ever again. That night I made the decision to play college golf for Northeastern State.

Now Im at Northeastern State playing college golf, and absolutely enjoy it. I still love violin, and practice when I go back home, but am still glad that I made the choice to play golf out of my love for violin. Music has been one of the most influential factors in my life, and because of my decision, it will never be tainted.