My mom is an accountant and my dad is a lawyer. Needless to say, they didn’t expect to ever have a musician in the family. I always like to share this when I talk to anyone about music or learning an instrument because many people think that you’re the most successful if you start young and come from a musical background. Not only did I not come from a musical background, I didn’t even know what the viola was until I started middle school.
The best things happen by chance…
It was all by chance that I signed up for orchestra when I got to pick which elective I would take in 6th grade. Orchestra fit in my class schedule and the violin was the only instrument I knew by name. It was also by chance that I was handed a viola on the first day of school instead of the violin like I had planned. My orchestra teacher had too many violinists sign up for the class so she handed me a viola, said I would like it just as much, and the rest is history.
Playing an instrument in that orchestra class taught me so much more than how to read music or how to play the viola. I had something of my very own that I was responsible for, I learned the benefit of practice and perseverance, and being able to perform music was so much more empowering than I could have ever imagined.
Music changed my life for the better
Everything that I’ve accomplished, every place that I’ve traveled, and every lifelong friend that I’ve made is connected in some way to the day that I started my musical journey. I am a firm believer in anyone being able to learn a musical instrument and enjoy all of the benefits and adventures that come along with it.
Now I want to share that life-changing experience
With all this being said, I became a music educator not to turn each of my students into a professional musician but to give everyone a chance to experience what music can do in their life. Music took on an unexpected role in my life and it could very well do the same in others’ lives as well whether that be helping them to gain confidence, making new friends, or becoming an orchestral musician.
How I made it here to Oconee County, GA
When I was finishing up my masters degree in viola performance this past spring, I was hoping I would find a way to continue to make music after graduation while also passing on all that I had learned to the next generation of students. I emailed Oconee Music on a whim hoping that they might be interested in adding a strings teacher to their already outstanding music program. It was again all by chance that the director, Kristin Humbard, had in fact been looking for someone to teach strings. After learning from her that Oconee County did not have strings programs in the school system, I was overjoyed at the opportunity to be able to share the instruments with this town that have meant so much to me for much of my life.
You can change your child’s whole life today!
If you would like to learn more about starting a musical journey with violin or viola, you are invited to a strings open house at Oconee Music on August 17, 2019 at 2pm! I will be there to answer any and all questions you might have, go over all things violin and viola, and demonstrate some playing on both instruments. Hope to see you all there and I cannot wait to be a part of the musical community in Oconee!
Sincerely,
Sarah Cornett, M.Mus. (violin and viola instructor at Oconee Music)
I became a music educator not to turn each of my students into a professional musician but to give everyone a chance to experience what music can do in their life.
Sarah Cornett
