The power of music

Music is an integral part of many people’s lives. For dedicated musicians, it can be an escape, a craft to perfect, or a creative outlet. At Carlmont, many students take part in the musical programs offered or compose their own pieces. As they practice more, their love for music grows. Eventually, it can become something they can’t imagine life without. Here are six Carlmont students and alumni who have taken their love of music to another level.

Words by Jack Hansen and Ruya Yaman Design by Allison Raisner

Dani Courtney

Many musicians seek fame, working for their big debuts and reaching out to record labels just to get their name out there. Dani Courtney is not one of these musicians.

All her life, Courtney has been surrounded by music: “It’s very important to me because it runs in my family, and it keeps a lot of my family members connected,” Courtney said. “Our dad used to be a professional musician, so he used to sing to us in the bath, and he would just serenade us all the time, so I don’t really think there was a time when we didn’t have music.”

Courtney began taking music lessons when she was very young, beginning with piano and exploring instruments such as viola and standup bass down the line. However, guitar was the one instrument that really clicked with Courtney, so she began to take it to Camp Newman, a camp that she has been attending every summer since she was a kid.

“[Camp Newman] is very supportive so they’ll take any kid with a vague interest in guitar and throw them in headfirst, which is kind of scary, but it really helps you learn,” Courtney said. “The first year I took my guitar to camp, I couldn’t even sing and play at the same time, and by the end I [had] all these songs down because there’s so many other players around you, and you have so many opportunities to play that you improve rapidly. It’s kind of insane.”

Aside from her experiences as a songleader at her camp, Courtney also writes her own songs. Often, these songs come to her randomly, and she writes and records the drafts in mere hours. However, as it is for many musicians, quarantine has taken away any possible muse for her songs.

“I write way less in quarantine,” Courtney said. “I wrote two songs and only one of them is good. I used to write way more when I had people around, because the inspiration came from the people and then quarantine was like, ‘just kidding, you can’t hang out with anyone.’”

Courtney did produce one of her first songs, “Pickle,” during quarantine. Working with her brother, Lucas Courtney, they took advantage of the extra time they had to record, produce, and release the song on all streaming platforms.

Before the release of “Pickle,” Courtney had mainly uploaded voice memos of her songs to SoundCloud, where her close friends and family could listen. However, this leap towards publicizing her music made many question whether she would look into pursuing a career in it.

“People ask me all the time if I’m going to study music in college and they’re like ‘you could be famous’ but I don’t want to be, at least not from music, and I don’t know why because music has always been one of my favorite hobbies,” Courtney said. “I write my songs because they’re in my brain, but I don’t have any real drive to be like Shawn Mendes or something. People always tell me, like, ‘You should post your music on TikTok, you’ll blow up!’ and I feel like that’s not really the goal here.”

Nonetheless, Courtney still enjoys music in her day-to-day life, whether that takes place in the form of listening to her personal favorites, performing with her choir, playing with her family, or songleading at camp.

“I feel like music is one of the coolest, most human things that exists,” Courtney said. “A lot of the stuff we do is like, ‘oh, animals do that too, we just do it more advanced,’ but there’s nothing else quite like music, and I think it’s really cool and super unique.”

Dani Courtney

Snehal Pandey

Every musician has their own story behind why they love music so much and what it means to them. For Snehal Pandey, a Carlmont alumna and student at Berklee College of Music, music has shaped and influenced who she is in many different ways.

“Music to me is just the best way for me to really express myself and be creative,” Pandey said. “As time went on, I became really passionate about it and it was all I wanted to do.”

Starting with piano lessons in her youth, Pandey began to learn and perform classical repertoire. Later on, she joined choir in middle school, which she immediately took a liking for. However, her entire perception of music changed when she sat in the audience of one of Carlmont’s choir concerts and took in their performance.

“Chamber choir performed a piece called ‘Jai Ho,’ and the energy was so different from what I knew,” Pandey said. “Middle school choir is you just stand there, sing, and make sure to smile, but high school choir was like people were dancing and vibing and I was like, ‘wow, that’s crazy.’ So, with that inspiration, I was like ‘one day I want to compose some type of choir vocals, but maybe introduce some kind of Indian or Middle Eastern aspect or something that ties more into my roots.’ So when I joined the choir program I started some arrangements in the later part of my freshman year.”

Not only was Pandey soon arranging for Carlmont’s choirs, but she even started her own acapella group, “Monty’s Pitches,” to incorporate more contemporary and pop music into the choral program. By her senior year, Pandey was in five different choirs at Carlmont, and her arrangements were regularly being performed by her classmates.

Pandey’s growing dedication and love for the craft raised questions about whether she would eventually want to major in music, and even seek it out as a career. Sure enough, Pandey got accepted into multiple prestigious conservatories, and chose to study at Berklee, where she is a piano principal with a double major in Film Scoring/Composition and Music Production/ Engineering. Pandey has continued to grow as a musician at Berklee, and become the musical director of Treble Threat, an all-female acapella group.

“When I joined it was kind of chill. There wasn’t really a drive for getting our stuff out there, or competing, or anything like that. So when I started arranging for the group, we started to have more of a drive to go to more gigs and perform more. The ICCAs (International Championship of Collegiate Acapella) were a really big thing for us and I think my favorite musical memories were when we were on that stage and we performed our set, and we won second place,” Pandey said. “Treble Threat has never placed before, not even the top five. And not only did we get second place but I also won an arranging award and that was when I was like ‘Wow, I can really do this now, my hard work has paid off.’ ”

However, even with her ever-growing success at Berklee, Pandey credits a big part of her push to pursue music to Genevieve Tep, Carlmont’s choral director. Pandey stated that Tep has always encouraged her to put herself out there, and allowed her to arrange for the choirs, and helped her every step of the way with choosing whether or not to pursue music in college.

“She’s opened a lot of doors for me, and the opportunities she’s given me through choir have really allowed me to grow as a musician,” Pandey said. “I could not be where I am without her. Absolutely.”

Arianna Behrendt

As with countless other aspects of life, the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected musicians. They’re unable to play with the groups they belong to. It’s taken away the togetherness of an ensemble, and musicians have had to adapt to the circumstances. For Arianna Behrendt, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced her to focus on different parts of her practice. Behrendt is a violinist in the Carlmont Symphony Orchestra and the Golden State Youth Orchestra. She recognizes that many of her teachers have changed how they approach music as a result of the pandemic. “It tilted the way that teachers view music and how they decide to teach it to the class. [Brian] Switzer, he is very much focused on notes and rhythms rather than the musicality portion of it. I think now, more technical things are brought in and there’s an emphasis on accuracy of notes and rhythms,” Behrendt said. Even though teachers had to adapt their teaching style to account for distance learning, they still try to develop their students’ music as much as possible. Behrendt says that her teachers have given her a different view of music. “The way they see music is through the eyes of their students, rather than themselves [...] They share with us what they’ve learned and their own experiences,” Behrendt said. In sharing their experiences, teachers are able to pass on more wisdom than just the technical parts of instruments. Anastasia Chernyavsky Good teachers can also pass on their love of music to the next generation of musicians. Although teachers play an important role in students’ musical experience, other musicians are just as important. Throughout her musical career, Behrendt has built memories with her ensembles. She’s played in Carnegie Hall and in Latvia with some of her former orchestras. Like many other musicians, Behrendt cannot imagine life without music. She’s been around it her entire life through her parents, who are both music teachers, and her own playing. Behrendt has played violin since she was a toddler and recently joined choir. It’s an art that she’s been around her entire life, impacting her greatly. “I’ve lived around music for my entire life. I don’t really know life without it [...] It develops your more creative side,” Behrendt said. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed musicians’ lives dramatically. In an age of isolation, musicians had to find a way to maintain their love for a discipline that’s typically done together. Even without playing together, people still have their own individual love for music. “It’s kind of an escape from reality. It’s an art form where you can express yourself and also let go. In a way it’s also kind of sporty because you’re practicing and perfecting and constantly looking to better yourself as a musician. It’s an escape, but it’s also hard work, and I enjoy it,” Behrendt said.

Emily Kim

Emily Kim, a senior, sees playing the violin as almost as basic of a need as eating or drinking. After years of practice, the thought of not playing has become inconceivable to her. Kim is the concertmaster of the Carlmont Symphony Orchestra; that role serves as the leader of the first violin section and the conductor’s assistant. In addition to the Carlmont Symphony Orchestra, Kim plays for the Peninsula Youth Orchestra (PYO) and the California All-State Orchestra. She’s also worked with a private teacher since she started playing. Kim started playing violin when she was around five years old, following in the footsteps of one of her friends. “I had this friend who was two years older than me. She played the violin and was everything I wanted to be in life. I just decided that what she did was cool and I wanted to do it too,” Kim said. As she got older, Kim joined the Ralson Orchestra in sixth grade and later made it into the Carlmont Symphony Orchestra. Throughout her years of experience, she’s enjoyed perfecting her craft. “For me, it’s something that I get to work on to perfect. That’s why I like it a lot. It’s an area of my life that I have control over; there’s always room to improve,” Kim said. When distance learning started, music classes had to adapt to the circumstances. This meant online classes and the usage of apps such as Soundtrap for students to record their music. When recording, students became much more aware of their music.

“I hear my mistakes a lot more. When you’re recording yourself, there’s nothing you can overlook. You hear every little detail and it gets really difficult not to nitpick,” Kim said. In addition to the individual changes for distance learning, musicians like Kim lose the group experience that music can provide. Groups like PYO sometimes traveled and performed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trips like those can create memories and bring the orchestra closer together. “I recently went on tour with PYO to Finland and Estonia. Emily Kim We had a lot of great memories there. We got to play in this amazing rock church in Finland,” Kim said.

Although Kim and many other musicians cannot practice in person, they are still driven by their love for music.

“In the end, music is a very individualized and solitary discipline. I like practicing; I enjoy it a lot, perfecting each little bit,” Kim said.

Javin Zipkin

For many, music means performing pieces with peers, listening to personalized playlists, and enjoying the subtle melodies in the world around them. However, for Javin Zipkin, music entails so much

more.

Zipkin has been composing music for over 3 years now, from simple melodic motifs to elaborate pieces, often with several movements.

“Music is really best for expressing yourself in an unconventional way,” Zipkin said. “It’s a way to connect senses that you don’t think should be connected.” Zipkin is a strong believer in conveying complex emotions through his compositions, and uses his music as a creative outlet to express whatever he is feeling at the moment.

Surprisingly, Zipkin has never studied music theory, or had anyone teach him the basics of composition. The first time he explored going past solely performing music dates back to his experience in eighth-grade band.

“My band teacher, who’s probably the best teacher I’ve ever had, was telling me that it was her last year there [...] she was going to move to a different school,” Zipkin said. “I thought that it would be the coolest thing ever if we surprised her at our last concert by playing music that she didn’t put in the concert. So, I made an arrangement of all of our favorite songs from the past four years in band.”

When Zipkin presented this arrangement to the rest of his bandmates, and eventually his departing teacher, he got an incredible amount of support. Encouraged with the fruits of his labors, as well as his newfound knowledge of musical notation software, Zipkin went about composing his own pieces.

While Zipkin currently plays trumpet for Carlmont’s symphonic band, he draws inspiration from many external musicians that reflect in his own works.

“Right now, the person who is [a huge influence] for me is Herman Beeftink,” Zipkin said.“He composes this really cool stuff for flutes and piano, and basically whenever I’m writing music, I try to use elements of his style. He uses very simple stuff, makes it sound really good, and always paints a picture in my mind, so I guess he’s my biggest inspiration right now.”

Zipkin’s musical inspirations definitely do influence his compositions, giving many of his pieces a medieval sound and telling stories through his harmonies and musical motifs. Above all else, Zipkin aims to convey intense emotion and connect with his audience through his music.

“It’s so corny, but if you’re able to feel the music so much that it’s almost like you’re seeing it or touching it, that’s when you know it’s good,” Zipkin said.

Javin Zipkin

Jack Peacock

For some, jazz I was a little taken aback, but I got on the stage and he had this can seem like packet [...] There’s a bunch of sets and it has the song and the a bunch of key it’s in. They would start the song, and my teacher basically seemingly said figure out the parts and come in when you’re confident,” random notes played to- Peacock said. gether. However, behind The packet contained only the most basic details of the each solo is months of song: the title and the key. It didn’t have things like the tempo experience and rigorous and the melody. However, Peacock was able to pick up the practice. For Jack Pea- parts, giving him an unforgettable experience. cock, who plays tenor “He [Peacock’s teacher] just said, ‘listen, and when you saxophone, each note think you have a part, step on the mic and play it with in every song he plays me. It was pretty liberating. And somehas years of practice and times there would be a solo, which Brian Switzer listening experience. is improvisation, or with some of

Peacock’s saxophone journey started in fifth grade. Since the older songs, the crowd wants then, he has played for the Tierra Linda Band and Jazz Band, you to play the solo that was on the the Carlmont Concert Band, and currently plays in the actual recording. It’s a really cool Carlmont Jazz Ensemble. Along the way, he’s also played in experience because it’s completely summer programs and with his private teacher. improvised and there’s no safety

In jazz, one must develop listening skills in addition to net,” Peacock said. playing one’s instrument. To be able to improvise, one must be Due to the COVID-19 familiar with the patterns of the music. pandemic, musicians

“One big thing is jazz is improvisation. If you haven’t heard haven’t been able to jazz music, if you haven’t heard people improvise it’s pretty practice together like tough to say ‘go improvise and see what you can do,’” Peacock they used to be able to. said. Once music can return to

He also transcribes the music that he listens to, which helps normal, Peacock will be able him know the music even better. Transcription is the process to experience more of the things he loves about jazz. of listening to a song and then writing down the notes. One of “As a jazz musician, I think the biggest part is that feeling of Peacock’s biggest transcribing projects was transcribing Dexter liberation that is sheer improvisation. It’s a way to just forget Gordan’s “Go!”, a 37-minute-long album. about things and be in the moment and see what happens,”

Peacock has also played gigs outside of school. One of the Peacock said. most memorable was one that he played with his private teacher’s band in one of the San Carlos Music in the Park concerts.

“My teacher asked me, ‘hey, can you come sit in on this gig?’