In my life, “One heart, one beat” means that music has the power to unify us through creating empathy, helping us realize that we are all one in the human experience. I am deeply passionate about music as a means of fostering compassion, connection, and community. My goal as a musician and artist is to help people access that compassion and build connection and community in their lives. At its core, music is a communal art form; it is an ever-evolving conversation using a shared musical vocabulary that has developed over time. As a result, music is conducive to building community, and I found mine at jazz education non-profit Jazz House Kids. Studying jazz guitar in the organization’s Pre-College Academy has given me an incredible network of friends, collaborators, and mentors through which I have developed a profound sense of belonging. This community has pushed me to step out of my comfort zone and engage with valuable perspectives that I may not have encountered otherwise, and it is a place where I can express myself freely. Music, for me, is now irrevocably associated with community: they are one and the same. With that community comes a responsibility to give back: as Melissa Walker, founder of Jazz House Kids, would say, we have to “play it forward.” To be part of a community is to be loved and supported, and we must do our best to provide that same love and support to those around us. People like Joseph Natale deeply understood this, empowering young people in his community to achieve excellence doing what they love. I do my best to carry this philosophy in my own life and use my art to support those around me. Some of my most impactful performances have been my volunteer concerts at a local nursing home, where I devote time weekly to entertaining the residents with solo jazz guitar. While I play in a number of different facilities there, my performances in the Memory Care unit have been especially fulfilling—playing old standards that the residents are familiar with allows them to reconnect with their past and access memories and emotions that may be otherwise out of reach. We are suddenly connected across generations through music; during those concerts, we have “One heart, one beat.” I also participate as a teaching assistant and student leader in a number of music ensembles at my high school, through which I do my best to support and guide less experienced students in their musical journey. In the school jazz band, for instance, I work with the rhythm section while the director teaches the horn players; I help guide the less experienced students and teach them to express themselves through the language of jazz. Similarly, in the school barbershop vocal ensemble, I act as a role model for the younger students, helping them learn music, build a supportive community, and ultimately find a sense of belonging. These experiences allow me to directly impact and support my community through my music, which is incredibly fulfilling. When we sing together, I get to pass on my experience and give the younger students the same joy that I had when I was in their shoes; we are unified in the passing of the torch, in the shared love and support, in the music. “One heart, one beat” is giving back. It is passing the torch. It is playing it forward. “One heart, one beat” teaches us how to create fulfillment and share it with others, and I will always live by that philosophy.

When taking each of the photographs in the portfolio below, my intention was to capture the subtleties of everyday life, telling stories with composition and contrast. I believe that there is endless insight to be found within our day-to-day experiences; we just have to live with a sense of wonder and curiosity. When we do that, even seemingly mundane experiences can become beautiful expressions of humanity. That sentiment carries into my artistic practice, especially regarding photography. With that in mind, the first image in my portfolio depicts a couple sitting alone on a pier, tranquilly taking in the sunset. The vibrant negative space of the cloudless sky contrasts with the silhouetted couple on the pier to evoke the simple pleasure of being engulfed by the colorful expanse of sunset. The second photo below is a moment I captured of my grandfather at a family gathering during the summer. The way the light falls on his face highlights his subtle smile and the sparkle in his eyes, and I decided to go with black and white because it accentuates the contrast and emotion of the image. The third image is of a room in my house in the process of being painted. The light from a window offscreen draws attention to the center of the frame, where painting supplies sit on a canvas drop cloth. The scene’s stillness and lighting capture the tenderness and care that goes into painting and the emotional rebirth that comes with redoing a room. The fourth photo was taken from the Lavalette beach at night, looking in through the windows of a house. The negative space and subtle, out-of-focus plants in the foreground draw the viewer’s eye to the upper floor windows, where a lamp creates a warm, inviting glow. However, the outside perspective and condensation on the window create a layer of mystique and intimacy in the photograph. The fifth and final photo in my portfolio depicts a flock of blackbirds perched among barren tree branches in the winter. I went with a high-contrast black and white look to highlight the silhouettes of the blackbirds and symbolize the repose offered by the branches against the harsh white sky. With all five photographs, I did my best to capture small moments and scenes in ways that bring out their inherent humanity and create emotional depth; this is the goal of all of my art.

Option 2: The Future of Human Connection Technology in the 21st century has had an undeniably profound impact on every aspect of human life, from politics and art to dating and mental health. Particularly, social media and the internet have created an overabundance of information and stimulation that has desensitized us to the chaos of the world, dulling our emotions and diminishing our ability to discern what matters. This collective apathy and loss of compassion has been catastrophic for human connection. By allowing technology to permeate so many aspects of our lives, we have sacrificed our ability to forge authentic connections with those around us. But what can we do? How do we bring empathy and authentic connection back into the world? The answer is deceptively simple—we make and engage with art. Art is the means by which we as humans express ourselves, conveying aspects of the human experience that cannot be explained any other way. Engaging with art, whether as artist or audience, has the power to unlock the empathy that lives inside each of us. Every artistic medium and style offers its own path to human connection. My primary artistic medium is jazz. Jazz music is centered around improvisation in the moment; the music is an ever-evolving conversation using the shared musical vocabulary that has been developed over the years. Jazz teaches us how to listen to one another, to be present, and to consider each individual voice as a part of the collective musical conversation. It is a beautiful expression of humanity and democracy, strengthening our relationships with those around us and our ability to make new connections. Ultimately, art is the pathway to understanding that we are all connected in the human experience, which is key in expanding our empathy and preserving the authenticity of our relationships. As technologies such as artificial intelligence continue to deprive digital and recorded art of its humanity, we may reach a point where live performances are all that remains. This is because live, real-time creation, such as concerts and theatrical performances, are the only forms of art that can never be replicated by AI. Performance is a living, breathing art—beautifully imperfect and never the same. Because of this, live performance is innately human, and thus has the power to bring people together and build communities. Going to concerts and plays is a powerful way to find like-minded people, spark discourse and connection, and expand our perspective; special, once-in-a-lifetime moments on the stage often create unique bonding experiences in the audience. Performance is a way to escape the technology that so often holds us captive and live in the real world, free from the influence of addictive social media and the constant barrage of catastrophe in the world today. To me, the future of human connection is clear: play music, see a concert, go to a play. If we continue to support and engage with the arts, we will preserve our collective lifeline to empathy and strengthen our ability to connect with one another. We will remember how to listen to one another, and we will reclaim the authenticity of our experiences and relationships. Art is the key—we must keep it safe.