Audrey Sherrill & Michael D'Ambrisi Music Scholarship

I have loved music my entire life. Even at just eleven months old. Once, when my mom put on the classical music station in the car, she looked back to check on me, and to her surprise, I was dancing and banging my hands like I was playing an imaginary piano! I started playing my church piano when I was seven. Then my mother got me an electric keyboard, to which I promptly stuck numbered stickers and began to write short songs in numbered code. I only learned to read music when I turned 8 and had my first violin lesson. Apparently, a violin was cheaper than a grand piano. Regardless, I soon enjoyed playing violin even more than the piano. Within ten years, I went from studying the Suzuki method to performing Dvorak’s violin concerto. During those years, I was accepted by the Baltimore School for the Arts, an arts high school that included the study of music history, literature, and theory in its schedule. The curriculum also included publicly performing in the orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo recitals, and the chorus, and taking private lessons with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist, Ivan Stefanovic. It was the pure joy I got out of rehearsing with my peers and performing works of music that hold such soul-moving beauty that made me realize I could not live happily without playing the violin. Every summer, I am invited to perform for several churches in my hometown. There was one Sunday when I remember asking God for a sign if the violin was the right career path for me. After I finished performing, the pastor mentioned my performance in his sermon. He explained that music is a gift that can provide the mental rest we all need. This confirmed my choice. My life's mission is to use my love of music to provide people with joy and rest through music. Performing for me is less about the technical aspects of my performance than it is about providing music that will emotionally move the audience in an engaging or restful way. Although I love the thrill of performing on a stage in a large concert hall, my most fulfilling performances have been for small audiences in my local churches or in a nursing home. It is there that I get to truly make a difference and provide an experience that is many times out of reach. Classical music is a genre that has been increasingly restricted to only those who can afford to attend. Even more so in the educational field, where many are forced to choose a more affordable educational path over their passion for music. I am now studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with violinist and professor Lynn Chang. I plan to finish my Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, attend graduate school, and consider further postgraduate education. After my education, I intend to join an orchestra, form a chamber group, and join or create a program that will make classical music training accessible to young people. As the child of a single mother, I have faced struggles with affording such training: the cost of my instrument and its repairs, private lessons, summer programs, and now my college tuition. It is because I understand the extreme costs of classical training and my inspiration drawn from my hard-working and number-one fan, who is my mother, that I am driven to share classical music and its healing benefits. Especially for those who, like me, have struggled to access it.

Having grown up in a very musical family, I do not remember a time when music was not a part of my life. However, it was only in my junior year in high school that I started to realize how much joy music truly brought me. I started piano when I was five—my mother is an MTNA certified teacher and active member of DSMTA, so I was very active with music from a young age. I would practice and go to my lessons, and I really liked it, but I never imagined myself doing much with it in a career or academia. I did the solo and theory festivals with DSMTA, but was never enthusiastic about performance or theory. Music was always just a hobby for me. But in high school, I started teaching piano lessons to beginner students—something which I enjoyed much more than I expected. In teaching others about piano, I started to better appreciate it myself. In sharing piano with others, I found myself enjoying it more. Then, during the days of quarantine, I started teaching myself ukulele, accompanying myself as I sang my favorite songs. I then taught myself guitar and spent hours at a time sitting in my room singing, learning, and making music. Music was no longer just a hobby, but a real highlight of my day. My love for music grew all the more and I picked up a fourth instrument, the lever harp. I then started singing as lead cantor at my church—it was then that I concluded that my favorite musical outlet was the one tied to my Catholic faith. By the time I applied for college, I knew I wanted to major in music. I was thinking I might pursue a career in music therapy, where I could share my love of music with those who would benefit so much from it. Or perhaps I might go to graduate school and study liturgical music. I kept these ideas in the back of my mind as I started college. My first semester, I took voice lessons for the first time and fell in love with singing all over again. Within the music major, I decided to focus on voice performance. I knew music was something I was going to be doing for the rest of my life—but at that time, I was feeling less and less inclined to pursue music therapy or go to graduate school. Eventually, I found myself being pulled in a different direction—a very unconventional direction. At this time, I began feeling drawn to join religious life, a form of consecrated life within the Church—what many people understand to be nuns. Of the various orders, I was attracted to those groups which primarily worked as children’s teachers, especially those which emphasize the importance of music and music education. After much prayer and contemplation, I found immense peace in the idea of following this call. This gave me an entirely new inspiration to continue musical studies—with a music degree, I could join religious life and bring music to children, while at the same time sharing with them the perfect joy and peace that comes from God. I could even continue to cantor and participate in liturgical music, using my voice for a higher purpose. The joy that I find in music is only multiplied when I give it freely, because it brings light to others’ lives as well. As I devote my life to God and live serving others, I hope to impact others through the music I will continue to create and share.