My brother is three years older than me and out of the two of us, he has always been the brave, confident, ham. (I mean that in the nicest of ways of course.) He was on television, had all the lead roles in the plays in high school and was so talented in singing and acting. I just simply played the piano...until my mom signed me up for an acting class that Junior Players was hosting on Saturday mornings in Kurth Hall at the Sammons Center. I was 13 years old, incredibly shy and wanted to sleep in of course but my mom dragged me out of bed and dropped me off....for 8 solid weeks.
However, it changed my life. I had to do improv games, look people in the eye, speak to an audience alone and most importantly, I had to finish the course. Truthlfully, I resented my mom every Saturday morning when she relentlessly forced me to go. Her goal was just to help me get out of the shy state I had been in for so long. She knew I'd probably never be the star that my brother was but she just wanted me to have some confidence in my stage presence. I didn't change personalities overnight but it gave me an appreciation for something that my brother did and for theater overall. I didn't understand the courage it took and the mental clarity one needed to truly act in front of others.
Fast forward to my high school years at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts where we had many performances and then my college years to playing for the jazz nights, again so many great memories.
When I started my studio in 2014 I really loved the acoustics of Kurth Hall and thought it was just the right size for what we needed. Now I am beyond grateful that we have outgrown Meadows Hall for a single performance and now require several seatings. A musician is an artist and therefore needs to not only be exposed to other genres of music but also other forms of art and that is what the Sammons Center is all about. They have so many great organizations that are out there everyday providing arts opportunities for our Dallas community and I am just so honored that our organizations get to be apart of that synergy.
It's really a dream come true for me to share that New Song Music Academy and New Song Young Artists are officially residents of the Sammons Center for the Arts in Dallas.
