According to family legend, I was kicking to the beat in the womb. It was at my great-grandfather’s 80th birthday and the DJ started playing “It’s Raining Men”. My grandmother was pulling mom up to the dance floor when I started kicking to the beat of the song. Mom conducted concerts while she was pregnant with me, with me providing a steady beat while her students performed. Music was always a part of my life growing up. I would give concerts with my toy guitar outside of my home for the neighborhood to hear, not caring about a single person judging me. I started singing in the choir and playing percussion in the band for my school, loving every second of it. I could feel the power of those around me, performing the same music I was, feeling the same pulse, the same beat, as we played our hearts out. One of my best friends became my friend because the both of us were in choir together. I felt like I belonged within those ensembles. Beatboxing became my joy after I had learned about its existence. Mom would put on a cappella music on my iPod, thinking I would fall in love with the beautiful harmonies. While I did love the harmonies, I fell in love with the percussion sounds that came from the beatboxers mouth. I could feel the power of beatboxing as I listened to more and more. I would imitate it every day, every second I got the chance to. At 8 years old, I declared on “Dress Up as Your Future Profession Day” that I would become a professional beatboxer to my confused, but supportive parents. When I found out that beatboxing had a global community of people just like me, who all found the same joy in beatboxing as I did, I knew I was joining something special. I became the youngest competitor of the American Beatbox Championships at the age of 10, with my own music connecting with the audience as I made history. My family and I learned about The RockNRoll Chorus a couple of years before when they performed at the local county fair. The RockNRoll Chorus is a nationally touring a cappella group composed of high schoolers across the state of New Jersey. I told the director, Cantaff, that I was going to join RockNRoll Chorus when I was old enough. Cantaff saw my journey to become a professional beatboxer and wanted me to join the group as soon as I was old enough to audition. I was so excited, but nervous at the same time when I found out that I was joining the group I had fallen in love with years before. Am I going to fit into this group? When the first rehearsal came, I walked in not knowing a single person. I walked out hours later, with new friends and a feeling of family. 3 national tours later, I had found my family away from home. While the road may be hard, the feeling on stage as the group hits that last chord at the end on one of our best shows all year is something that cannot be replicated in any other environment. I had made some of my greatest friends through The RockNRoll Chorus because of the shared experiences on the road. Music is the most powerful tool when it comes to connection. The bonds I had made through choir, band, solo performances, and The RockNRoll Chorus became what they are through the music we played together, not the music we played separately.

I am a non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns and is fortunate to live in New Jersey, where educators have the opportunity to learn the best practices for working with LGBTQ+ students. This doesn’t mean that teachers will always apply what they've learned, and I’ve experienced this firsthand. When speaking with other students, I found out that this was a common problem that my high school faced, but most weren’t comfortable enough to stand up for themselves. I knew that in order to try and educate teachers on how to best support their LGBTQ+ students, someone would have to speak up. I wanted to be that voice. I started out by joining my Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) leadership board as the Secretary and then President, speaking with students in order to understand how best to communicate our concerns. I’ve met with the district leadership to align our efforts to protect queer students, and foster a warm, welcoming environment for our community. Perhaps I’m most proud of the work I’ve done in collaboration with my mother, a music educator, who saw what I was doing to advocate for my peers, and realized the opportunity to take this message to others. We have been presenting at a variety of workshops on other subjects, however we realized that this topic was crucial for educators to understand my perspective as a queer student. In conjunction with another educator, our session, “Working With Your LGBTQ+ Students: A 360 Perspective Teacher, Student, Parent” was chosen for the 2024 New Jersey Music Educators Association Conference and again in 2025. Furthermore, it was selected for the National Association for Music Educators Eastern Regional Conference in 2025. I will admit, I was nervous speaking to a room full of teachers, but we rehearsed repeatedly and I was ready to represent not only myself but my fellow students. In preparation I gathered quotes from my GSA members. I took their tales and my own and delivered our story to the teachers in attendance. Our collective message was well received and inspiring for the people who heard it. I was filled with pride afterwards, when the teachers came up to me and thanked me for lending my voice to their education. From their feedback I believe our next step would be to do a TEDTalk, so that more teachers could benefit from hearing the students' voices that are often missing.

“Aca-scuse me?” I was about 10 years old when my parents let me watch the Pitch Perfect movies for the first time. I was obsessed with a cappella music at the time and wanted to learn everything I could about it. I watched the movies so many times that it was all I could talk about. I would listen to the entire soundtracks on repeat for hours at a time, falling further in love with this trilogy. I wanted to join an a cappella group so badly after this experience and eventually I did. Wait, let me backup for a second. My mom put a lot of a cappella music on my iPod, thinking I would fall in love with the beautiful harmonies. While I did love the harmonies, I fell in love with the beatboxing and imitated it. I loved the drum sounds so much that I declared at 8 years old that I wanted to be a professional beatboxer when I grew up. My dreams of joining a performing, touring, a cappella group came true when I joined The RockNRoll Chorus, a nationally touring a cappella group based in New Jersey, the summer before 8th grade. I’m getting ready to go on my 4th national tour this summer, and let me tell you, it’s nothing like Pitch Perfect made it out to be. You know that great scene, where the entire group is spontaneously harmonizing to “Party in the USA” before a competition in the van and everyone’s having a great time? That doesn’t happen in real life as the bus is a sacred place where you catch up on sleep and keep listening to your part before and after every show. If anyone were to try to do something like that, especially after a show, that person is getting dirty looks from everyone else and will be told to please be quiet. Remember the scene where one of the members starts singing a new vocal line in the middle of the set and nobody’s thrown off in the moment and it fits perfectly with no rehearsal? First of all, our director will be very unhappy if anyone were to try and pull that in a rehearsal, let alone on stage. The amount of rehearsals that it takes to make it look effortless is mindblowing. And, quick question, why did they leave out the most glamorous part of being in an a cappella group where you have to set up and break down all the equipment needed for a live show after you’ve just performed and you’re completely exhausted? There are a couple of things that the movies did get right though. The friendships that you make within the group are forged from long rehearsals, 1am hotel check ins, and endless amounts of road adventures. I’ve met some of my best friends through RockNRoll Chorus and I have memories that I’ll treasure forever. There is nothing like hitting that last note at the end of the set and feeling the energy of everyone else on stage around you. A cappella has taken me to perform in some pretty amazing places across the country. Whether it was in over 100 degree heat for a minor league team in Durham, North Carolina, opening for Jay Leno at the Count Basie Theatre, performing in the freezing cold during an ice storm, or one of the many performances my group has done for countless charity organizations, if it wasn’t for the Barden Bellas inspiring me, I would’ve never joined the aca-life.

At 8 years old, I declared to my bewildered parents that I was going to be a professional beatboxer when I grew up. At 11, I became a part of Acapop KIDS, created by producers of Pentatonix. Acapop KIDS is an a cappella group made up of some of the best child musicians across the country and I was a part of the original cast as one of the two beatboxers. When I first entered the recording studio, I felt like my dreams were coming true. I was in a professional recording studio, something I had only fantasized of happening. But even though I was having the time of my life, I couldn’t help but be interested in what Ben Bram, the arranger and producer, was doing, producing right in front of me on the other side of the glass. I decided right then and there that I was not only going to be a recording artist, but I was also going to be able to produce music as well. I wanted to be a dual-threat artist/producer. My producer education began when I was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship to an online program called Music Career Masterminds. This group of music industry professionals teaches music artists on the many aspects of the music industry which include how to write songs, how to produce music, importance of social media, recording software, and other important industry disciplines. There, I met many other students like me, who all shared the same drive and passion for music that I had and built a few friendships out of it too. I was able to learn how to think from both sides of the recording studio glass. From a producer's mindset, of being analytical of every click of the mouse, and how the different tracks are layered to form a complex musical ear candy that demonstrate the vision (or sound) of the artist’s mind. I took those two mindsets and continued to build up my skills as I entered high school. I started high school and began my college search for the perfect program/major that was a reflection of what I wanted to do in and with music. Many of the collegiate programs only offered either a performance degree or a production degree, but not both. Let alone offered anything with Beatboxing as a primary instrument. My family and I looked across the country at all possible schools and their offerings with not the right opportunities, until a family friend of ours contacted us, saying how there was a new program that seemed to be built with me in mind. The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University had a new major and program called Hip-Hop Production with Beatbox and they accepted me. This major at Peabody is the first school to offer a Bachelor of Music in Hip-Hop Production with a Beatbox principle instrument. The Hip-Hop Production major at Peabody offers me the opportunity to learn the skills needed to produce music and perform music. This program checked off all the boxes for me and what I want to do with my future. The school’s community is also the right fit as well, a community of artists from all over with a similar mission of self-improvement and making musical art. Now, almost 10 years after making my grand announcement of being a professional Beatboxer, and my musical education journey has brought me to this point where one of the oldest music schools in the country launched the perfect program to fit my dreams of sitting on both sides of that recording studio glass creating music.

I declared at 8 years old that I was going to be a professional beatboxer. It was Career Day at my school so I dressed up in my best “beatboxer” look, with my mom taking a video of me explaining what a beatboxer does and demonstrating how they make different sounds, like drums, instruments, anything you can think of, all with your mouth! I had loved beatboxing ever since I heard KO, the beatboxer from the a cappella group Pentatonix, amaze me with what sounds he produced, which inspired me to first try beatboxing. I wanted to be like him when I grew up. Fast forward about a year later, mom and I are at the SingStrong International A Cappella Festival on Long Island. We were talking with one of the groups, Backtrack Vocals, when I had mentioned I was a beatboxer. They introduced the group’s beatboxer, Johnny Buffalo, and he showed me some of his own sounds. We started jamming together and he became my first teacher after that weekend. He told me about the entire world of beatboxing, the community, types of competitions, and so much more. One lesson, Johnny told me “If you keep up the good work you’ve done, you can become the youngest to compete in the American Champs.” A few months later, mom and I were in the car heading to Brooklyn where I would make history. The American Beatbox Championships was incredible. As we walked into the venue there I saw legends of the scene, The Beatbox House, Peponi, Alexhino, Kaila Mullady, Scott Jackson, people who I’d been so familiar with from my screen, were now right in front of me, playing pool together. I marched up and introduced my 10 year old self to these accomplished beatboxers in the community. When asked which beatboxer I was rooting for, I said “I am a beatboxer” and proceeded to beatbox for everyone right there. The response was amazing. Support was given as later that weekend, I became the youngest to compete in the American Beatbox Championships. The next year, I auditioned for Acapop KIDS, a new kids group created by the producers of Pentatonix. One of the producers is Scott Hoying, a member of Pentatonix. I wanted to be a part of this group so badly, it would make my dreams of being a professional beatboxer come true. I became a member of that group after multiple rounds of auditions. I entered the recording studio with Acapop later that year. A couple of years later, I was in regular contact with Scott through Instagram. I had told him already that it was because of Pentatonix that I became a beatboxer in the first place and how it was a dream of mine to thank and beatbox for KO. Heading into the holiday season, my family had bought tickets to see Pentatonix live and we had told Scott about how we were so excited to see him perform. He told us to arrive there early as he had a surprise for me. VIP passes were there, including a meet-and-greet with Pentatonix. The next thing I knew, I was thanking KO for inspiring me to beatbox and finally got that chance to beatbox for him. His words afterwards I keep close to my heart: “You’re a superstar. Never let anyone tell you differently.” Now, almost 6 years later, I have just been accepted into Peabody Conservatory of Music’s inaugural class for the Bachelor of Music in Hip Hop Production, with a beatbox principal, the first program of its kind in the country. I’m on my way.

I’ve always found Chappell Roan’s music to be really fun and different compared to a lot of other mainstream pop music. From “HOT TO GO” to “The Giver”, I find her music to be exciting. Her lyrics really resonate with me, about struggles with sexuality and figuring out your place in the world. I love to listen to her songs whenever I need a pick up when I’m down or whenever I just need to hear something relatable for a bit. But, what really sets her apart from so many other artists is her not letting the media and paparazzi dictate her life. I first heard of Chappell Roan when she was really starting to clap back against paparazzi and parasocial relationships fans would have with her fellow artists. She opened up about how damaging it was for her mental health about how controlling the media was about artists, especially female artists, and why there needs to be boundaries that no one can cross. Many times during award season, she called out pushy reporters and made sure to set a boundary about her own life. Even when she got hate about her stance from said paparazzi and some of the more toxic and entitled fans, she has held her ground and has stated multiple times that that kind of behavior is not allowed in her fanbase and in the world. As someone who’s already experienced this for myself, albeit on a smaller scale, I appreciate her stance on this issue. I joined Acapop KIDS!, an a cappella group from the producers of Pentatonix, in 2018 and when my first video came out a year later, I was flooded with fans all around the world who wanted to talk with me, some 12 year-old beatboxer from New Jersey. I was lucky that my mom ran my social media account, so she could set up that barricade for me as not everyone understood boundaries or had a realistic understanding of what the group was. While most fans were very supportive and incredible, there were others who clearly developed parasocial relationships and thought me and other cast members from Acapop were best friends who all lived in the same house out in LA, when in reality, most of us were cordial to each other and lived all around the country. I didn’t even know half of the cast as not everyone was in every video. But, because of what the fans had seen, they created this image of what we were that was not reality. I would have instagram Live sessions, with Mom moderating, where I would show new routines I was working on, collaborate with beatboxers around the world, teach some beatboxing tips, and talk with people who followed me. Unfortunately, some fans, we learned, seemed to confuse that with us being friends in real life and I was lucky to have Mom there to take care of those situations. Having someone think that because I talked to them about life in general through a screen made it so we were now best friends in real life was not something I enjoyed. In fact, I found the experience to be frightening. So, hearing a fellow queer artist speak up about what some of most toxic fans do brings me hope that when I, hopefully, get a bigger following, that boundary can already be set by someone who has a lot more power than me in the world. Change can only happen when someone speaks up about an injustice in the world, even with extreme backlash.

I exited off the stage, sweat dripping down my shirt. I grabbed my water bottle, chugging whatever is left from the almost empty bottle. The laughter and the encouragement from my friends that was never fully processed went in and out of my ears. My body hurt so bad from the sheer amount that I did, trying to make sure I didn’t lose any focus. I kept replaying the show in my head, looking back at how many mistakes I made, the amount of energy I gave trying to feel more in tune with the rest of the group, and the focus required to never lose tempo. The vocal coaches were talking to everyone about the show and how to improve for each one of us. The nurse was handing out more water to those who needed it. I sat down on the step right behind the stage. Eric was talking with someone right next to me, something about how to show more emotion in their solo or something. Then, I felt a presence right next to me. Cantaff, the director, came up to me, “Good job out there kid.” “Thanks Cantaff.” That was my first show ever with the Rock N Roll Chorus, and the moment I realized I had a good mentor to help me become the best I could be, whether it be on the stage or in my personal life. I joined the Rock N Roll Chorus, an a cappella group made up of high schoolers from around New Jersey, back in the summer before 8th grade, which is run by Joseph Cantaffa, or as we all call him, Cantaff. A group that’s entire goal is to help teenagers learn how to go on the road and tour in a professional setting. I have always wanted to join ever since I saw them at my county fair when I was 6 years old. That show was my first show with the group, which happened to be at the same county fair that I first saw them in. I always had a little bit of imposter syndrome in the beginning, as I was younger than the normal accepted people and I had lost much of my confidence due to other people tearing me apart through words. I always looked up to Cantaff since I joined, because he was the main adult in the group and he helped me learn my parts because I had no one else to help with. But, when he came up to check on me, to give me encouragement after my first show, meant so much more to me than I thought it would be. Cantaff is someone that has taught me the importance of arts education, as without his guidance, I wouldn’t have been given as many opportunities as I had gotten. His impact on how I view music and the arts as a whole, from something that is just where I go once a week to this is my entire life, has driven me to apply for a music production program in some of the top schools.