Brian Stratford: A member of Chorus and Quartet, a Literary Soloist, in LHS’ musical “9 to 5”, and a Wrestling State Qualifier When asked if music was an important part of his life, Brian answered, “I love music, music can cultivate thoughts and ideas, it can convey emotions and ideas words can’t just fully incorporate. A shirt I really like says, ‘Music picks up where words leave off.’ I don’t know if I completely agree with it, because I think words are also very powerful but I definitely like the idea that music can convey emotion.” Brian told us that Literary Competition is where people in different genres of literary components compete - such as singing, creative and argumentative writing, speeches, and monologues. Students compete in a room in front of judges. Brian will be competing as the male soloist. He will perform two solo songs, competing against other male singers. “Le Violette” is an Italian selection he’ll be singing. The prep for these two songs is extensive. The way one sings makes all the difference. This includes perfecting vowels (stressing the vowel rather than the consonant) and how one approaches each word - all of this affects the mood and the tone. The singer has to set the theme of the song and use dynamics (the differentiation between loud and soft). His method for practicing: “When my voice is hurting and I can't sing the highs notes anymore, I just say the words to the rhythm; I need to get it ingrained in my memory. I run the song over and over practicing the emotions, and connotation behind what I’m saying. I look at the meanings, and run the pronunciation.” Being the soloist this year surprised Brian. “I was competing against seniors for this position and I’m a sophomore, and I got it. It’s their last year and I still have two more years to compete. It meant a lot to me." Thinking about the competition, he noted, “But it's also a cool and neat experience because I get to sing my own songs and say I’m the soloist. This experience allows me to interact and learn from people I never would have otherwise. I get to evaluate my singing and learn about my voice, and because of it, I enjoy chorus more than I ever had before.”
Laila McClerry: Chorus Student, Devilette, Vocalist and Instrumentalist in Floral Cemetery, and 2019 LiterarySoloist Laila McClerry is in chorus and is this year's Literary Soloist. She is the female singer chosen to represent our school at this prestigious competition and will be performing two songs. She also has her own band that she plays in outside of school. She is the vocalist and guitarist in Floral Cemetery, a band that she helped create. Her band plays concert gigs and releases music on all platforms. They just released a single called P.M.W.D (Post Modern Work Days) available on Spotify, Youtube, etc. Chorus class has helped perfect and fine-tune Laila’s voice: “It keeps my voice intact; all the warm-ups and the techniques we use are so much different from the rock music I do outside of school. It really trains my voice; I know how to breathe and how to stay on track.” At the competition, the judges will pinpoint every note she sings but also watch the emotion her face portrays and the message she’s conveying. Laila practices with Mrs. Scott after school to prepare forLiterary Competition.
Drama
Madie Fields:5 StarsThespian, working on becoming an Honor Thespian (6 Stars) Actress in LHS’ play Radium Girls as “Kathryn”, Dual Enrollment student We asked Maddie how practice in class compared to acting on stage. She responded, “When you're in class you don't get the feeling you do when you’re on stage. I can't explain it, you can’t prepare for it. She told us that it’s a different feeling every night of the show. The first night the actors are more nervous because there is a lot riding on their first performance. They don’t know what to expect or how they will feel in front of a crowd for the first time. Madie explained that as you go along, “It gets progressively easier to a point where it’s like right as you get used to it... the shows over.” Radium Girls was the first play she ever acted in. She remarked, “I didn’t know what that was like, even in the small parts. Going from a tiny part with three lines to a lead role was a lot.” Reflecting upon the upcoming play, she admitted, “It’s a long shot, I wouldn't have ever thought of doing something like that before. When we did Radium Girls, I felt like it was a long-shot, and it did really well and people liked it. 9 to 5 feels more unreachable. We’ve done musicals before, but Beauty in The Beast was a children's musical. 9 to 5 is more intense, difficult, and anything but a kid’s show.” The Drama program has so much to offer for her. “I like getting to interact with people that I wouldn't otherwise if I wasn’t in theatre. I love being able to express myself in a way that I can’t anywhere else. There’s a lot of great opportunities that I had, like getting to go to ThesCon; I learned a lot there. It’s helped me to become more of an extrovert and get out of my shell.” Acting is important to her, “I wanna do it forever. I wanna be an actress, and I have so many aspirations that have to do with acting. I wanna be on TV, and on ‘Rock of Ages’ on Broadway.” The sky's the limit for Madie Fields.
Art
Ms. Hobbs: Art Teacher/Creator Ms. Hobbs has been teaching art for eighteen years and spent fifteen years teaching at Youth Elementary School. She is passionate about art and loves teaching high school students because of the relationships she gets to build with the students and the extra time she gets to spend with them. “I’ve always loved kids and when I was in high school, I would triple up on art classes and absolutely loved it.” Ms. Hobbs noted that her favorite class was 3D/ceramics since clay is her favorite medium and her major focus in college. She loves pottery, wheel throwing, and sculpture. Her favorite part about creating is the freedom in possibility: “There are no limitations, you can go wherever you want to. It’s a place where you can express yourself and know that no one is going to judge you on what you create, and that’s what I want the kids in my class to know. It's a free space for you to fully express yourself.” She told us the most challenging part of her job was grading since art is subjective. The students partially get to grade themselves on their works on how they think they did. “I want them to know that they won't be judged, acceptance is important. You can come and create and there is no right answer in art. In here, if you try your hardest, it’s good enough,” declared Ms. Hobbs. She always had a love for art but hopes to pass that love to her kids and students. “I teach my students about art, educate them, and help them grow because it’s my passion. I try to make each student feel more comfortable and build confidence in their artistic ability. Hopefully, they will find a new love for art.”
Ray Borchers: AP Art Student, Literary Writing Contestant for 2019, and 2018 Literary Writing Winner Ray Borchers is a talented and skilled art student here at LHS. Ray has taken Art 1, Photography 1, AP art, 2D art, and drawing and painting. He loves to paint and his favorite medium currently is acrylic. Ray is very passionate about art, and his dream career would be art or cinematography related. “It's like the only thing I can do, so I’m very passionate about it. I either want to be a illustrator or do something with the movie industry like story-boarding or helping with special effects.’’ Ray prefers to freelance, and he pulls his inspiration from the world around him. People inspire his art and influence his creations. “People not only inspire me to paint them but other people’s art and other people's philosophies inspire me to create. People are art, they are mythos and logic and math and numbers. People are everything. We aren't anything without other people,” reflected Ray.Over the years, he has grown tremendously as an artist by practicing and experimenting. He’s always trying out cool and interesting new things. He has developed his own creative, unique style of art. “Over the course of my high school career, I've become more open to experimentation and what art means on a personal level - as opposed to just impressing others.” Ray loves to create in his free time as much as he possibly can: “Right now, I’m actually working on this weird thing I’ve never done, it’s like abstract cubism. But yeah, that’s all I do every day when I get home. Every day when I get home, I’ll just work on pieces til I’m tired.” For him, the most challenging part about being an artist is struggling with insecurity and self-doubt. When he creates though, those things start to slip away: “My favorite part is probably the control of my environment and the zen feeling you get when creating. You can be insecure in a lot of places, but when you sit down and create art, you feel empowered and confident.”
Band
Dr.Brandon: Band Teacher/Director Dr. Josh Brandon may have started teaching as the new LHS Band Director back in August, but this year wasn’t his first time showing up at LHS. The summer of 2017, he was asked by the previous director to help out with Band Camp for the marching band. His first impressions of the band was that the musicians had a lot of potential, but that the atmosphere could greatly be improved. It was something that attracted him towards LHS even more. When he came in as band director, he made a point to improve and build the culture of the band students. “That’s been my concern,” Dr. Brandon said, “just how the culture is and how they’re so used to putting each other down or being put down. They get surprised when they’re complimented.” He finds it very important to improve on the culture and atmosphere of the program. “That’s been my number one thing. I think that before you can do any big changes, you have to fix the culture and how people identify themselves in that program.” Since then, he feels like he has improved it, but his job is to never think that he’s reached perfection. He constantly asks himself what can be done better, how can it be done better, and how can he improve as well. Dr. Brandon just says that it’ll take time; “Trust the process,” is a big mantra he goes by. Dr. Brandon started band in middle school, but solely because of other friends who did it. It wasn’t until high school that band became something he was truly interested in. “I hit a crossroads of doing either football or band, and I chose band.” He still did it because of his friends, many of whom he still keeps in contact with to this day. Dr. Brandon went to college on a full music scholarship. He chose music because it was something he enjoyed, but he didn’t realize that becoming a band director was something he wanted. Dr Brandon says it wasn’t until around two months before he graduated that he truly knew he wanted to do it. Since graduating, he’s taught all grade levels in Macon, Georgia, worked with the Band Department at UGA, and started teaching middle school in Henry County. His family lived in Walton County, so he was commuting a lot and didn’t get much time to spend with his two-year-old daughter. Dr. Brandon claims the Lord opened the right doors when the opportunity at LHS opened up. “It’s been a great fit here. As far as schools go, it’s a great school. It’s one you feel safe in and there’s a lot of kindness in kids and faculty which is awesome. It’s something that blows my mind constantly,” he reflected. Overall, Dr Brandon enjoys his job and working at LHS. Band is something he’s passionate about, and he’s glad he can share it. He declared: “This is my life.”
Alex Zerylnick: Beta Club, SADD Club, Marching Band, Jazz Band, and Concert Band Alex is a trumpet player who is a member of the marching, jazz, and concert bands. Alex has played the trumpet since the middle of her 6th grade year. In 8th grade, she even branched out and decided to learn the flute. Alex says her interest in the band program was simply wanting friends, which she feels like she has gotten in her four years of being a band student. As for the music, she says the band has gotten better with the new director, Dr. Josh Brandon. “We’re getting a lot better with the cool music, thanks to Dr. B,” Alex said. However, she claims she’s not the most confident of band students. She credits Nathan Dermer, another sophomore trumpet player, for helping her become more confident with her musical style.