2021 Gumbo final - Book - Page 166
166
cole
“There’s just something about playing an instrument that I absolutely love
doing. I can’t exactly describe what it is but it makes me really happy. Since I
was a little kid, I wanted to play, and where I’m from, our school required us to
do some form of music starting in the fourth grade. They gave us a choice. We
could’ve been in the choir, the band, or the orchestra, but I wanted to be in the
band. I thought that the band’s instruments were cooler. I accidentally ended
up picking the trumpet. I read the sheet wrong for how we were supposed to
pick our instrument. You were supposed to put it in the order that you wanted
it. I just put it in order of appearance which was trumpet, saxophone, and
percussion. I really wanted to be a percussionist, then a saxophonist and then a
trumpeter, but that’s how I got into it. I’ve been playing the trumpet for almost
nine years now. My most memorable performance was when my jazz band was
selected to perform at the Jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans
at the beginning of 2020 before everything that has happened. We worked like
crazy for an entire year for that opportunity, and my entire band got to fly down
from New York to perform. We were there for four days and got to tour around
New Orleans. For Spring break, my parents brought my best friend and I down
to New Orleans as well. Because I really enjoy jazz and know New Orleans is
the birthplace of jazz, I really wanted to come down to Louisiana for college. I
decided to peek around in the area and of course LSU popped up. Although I’m
a huge musician, I’m actually an astrophysics major. It’s an interesting mix, but
LSU is a very good school because the physics department is well funded and
they have all of the music I can dream of. I can audition for all of the ensembles
on campus while still studying astrophysics!”