Page 7 - CMTeen_Volume1_Issue3

MY BROTHER HENRY’S CMT MEANT he was never the first to cross a finish
line or shoot a basket. He cultivated his passion in something else-music.
From early childhood, Henry displayed a talent and fervent affection for
music. Growing up with a musician for a father, he was surrounded by
classical symphonies and sonatas by composers like Bach, Mahler, Beethoven,
Wagner and Brahms. When he was 18 months old, he threw a fit in the car if the
local FM station was changed to a popular station, and continued to cry until it
was changed back to classical. Even now, although he doesn’t cry about it any-
more, he much prefers classical music to Twenty One Pilots or Adele.

Henry started playing piano when he was very young, using a one-and-a-half
octave toy keyboard. He began by reproducing songs that he heard in the media
or that he was exposed to as the result of being the child of a middle school band
director. His first “hits” were “Dead Man’s Chest” and other themes from the
Pirates of the Caribbean movies and “Axel F” (the Beverly Hills Cop theme song).
A stickler for perfection, he played the same tunes for weeks until they were
carbon copies of the original.

As Henry grew older, his keyboards grew longer, and he spent hours practicing
music from films like “Star Wars,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Star Trek”
and “Indiana Jones” with his headphones on. Henry also loves musicals like “Les
Miserables” and “Phantom of the Opera” and entertains his classmates by playing
and singing large sections verbatim. Although he has never learned to read sheet
music for piano, he’s never needed to. His perfect pitch (a rare ability to recall
individual pitches from memory) has given him the unique ability to play back
almost anything he hears in its original key and its original voicing. Currently,
he is attempting to learn impressionist composer Claude Debussy’s “Arabesque.”
Why does he like it? “Because it’s good stuff,” he says.

Henry has always been successful in his school music programs. He played
the French horn in middle school, but took up vocal lessons in high school and
joined the choir instead. After the first semester of his freshman year, he was
promoted to varsity choir, where he sings bass. Although he is still undecided
about where he wants to go to attend college, he plans to pursue a degree in music
composition.

Henry, a high school junior in League City, Texas, also enjoys playing
multiplayer video games on his Steam account, learning about military
history, shooting firecrackers and watching “Doctor Who” and “The Office.”

Emily, 22, is a senior at Sam Houston
University. She is currently doing a music
therapy internship at a psychiatric hospital
in San Antonio, Texas.

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