Megan Cao

Hey everyone, I'm Megan Cao, a senior at Troy High School. I'm an amateur pianist and I love music, whether I'm listening, performing, or thinking. Notes and melodies are constantly jumbled together in my mind, an echo of Rhapsody in Blue reverberating while Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1 plays. In my mind, these notes are nothing; a song is only created when notes are manipulated to induce drama. I admire how artists utilize tension and pause to make their audience desire for more, to continue listening for the closure that comes after the climax.

Similarily, I try to utilize tension and pause in my own performances, working to evoke my feelings onto the audience. Curiously, my favorite part about performing isn't when my hands are on the keyboard; instead, it's the moments leading up the bench:

The air is almost suffocatingly thick, and the audience waits with bated breath as they wait for me to emerge behind the curtain. I'm not nervous though, and I walk out with calm and measured steps.

As I approach the bench and turn to bow, the audience relieves a sigh and politely claps, eager to see what sounds I can offer to them.

While I adjust my bench, I wipe my sweaty palms on my dress and take a deep breath as I calm my pounding heart. My mind is full of notes and phrases from what I'm about to perform.

Before placing my hands on the keyboard, I think back to what I want the audience to feel, how I want them to react. My shaking palms are placed meticulously in position, and suddenly the tension in the air comes flooding back. But I'm calm, and I take one last breath before I begin my performance.

This tension and subsequent release of tension are what I love about performing, and subsequently, music. This drama and action is I love about music. It's what drives me to stay up until 2am, listening to newly dropped albums, it's what drives me to spend hours upon hours perfecting a mere three measures, and it's what will drive me to keep pursuing music, whether professionally or casually, for the rest of my life.