Daniel Swayze

An interesting story how I got into music, I think...although I've always loved music, I didn't have the patience when I was little, so it took various events, which I believe were directed by God, to get me into it. It actually began with me going to a school called Life Christian Center. The school was so small that they would put multiple grades into one classroom; my sixth grade year I was in the same class as the seventh and eighth graders, so I ended up taking some of the same books as someone in eighth grade. When I entered the eighth grade at City Christian School I found out that they used the same health book that I had taken before. Fortunately, that period was an elective; I also had the option of playing in the band. So after much persuasion I finally decided to pick up my father's old clarinet that he had played in high school. After playing for only a few months I entered into Metropolitan Youth Symphony's Preparatory Band (now called Sousa Band) and began making great progress. I began practicing more and more, finding various pieces of music that I thought would really be fun to play; many of them being for piano. The event that spurred me on was when I saw Mozart's Requiem in concert, and was taken away by it. It was then that I realized what an effect music had on me, and decided to explore it as much as possible, picking up the piano only a short time later. For two years I was self-taught on piano, having only a few tips and music books that my mother provided me. In that time I learned a variety of pieces by Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Bach, releasing a CD of my work in spring of 2005 after only a year and a half of playing. I used that CD as a major fundraiser for a trip to Europe with MYS that I went on in the summer of 2005. Meanwhile, according to MYS General Manager Carol Neff, I made more progress on the clarinet in a shorter amount of time that anyone she had ever seen. After playing for only a year I entered MYS' highest level band, and entered their highest orchestra the following season. Currently I serve as principle in both their band and orchestra. I had my first piano lesson with Barbara Parker in August of 2005 and have been taught under her since. Over the course of that first season I completed my Level X Syllabus exam with honors, received wins at the Classic Festival, the Romantic Festival, and the annual OMTA Scholarship competition. I also was the First Alternate to compete at the state level from my district, and placed second on clarinet. I went on to become the first person from my school ever to compete at the state level in music, placing seventh overall on the clarinet. This profile features selections from my second CD-which is now available-or my senior recital.