“To ensure that something to alter your life, you gotta deal with it prefer it’s gonna change your life.” This can be a motto that latest Juilliard grad Sean Edwards lives by. Right this moment we discover out extra about Sean and his steady journey with music.
Sean, inform us about your self at the moment.
Such as you stated, I’m a latest Juilliard graduate. I’m from the South Facet of Chicago. I play percussion. That’s me.
I see you. All proper. Let’s get began. I wanna know what made you begin taking music significantly. Who put that first instrument or microphone in your hand?
So, I began enjoying music in like third grade. You realize, I used to be put in band. I used to get in bother so much for like tapping on desks and stuff, in order that they allowed me to hitch the band early.
From there, I went to a gaggle known as Percussion Scholarship Program in Chicago — South — properly, not South Facet of Chicago, in Chicago — below the path of Douglas Waddell and Patricia Sprint.
And you understand, they allowed me to take percussion classes. They supplied them at no cost, which was very helpful to my profession path.
You realize? However I don’t assume I took music significantly then. You realize, have in mind — it’s fourth grade. You realize, going with the stream, every thing, doing what my mother and father inform me to do. I didn’t actually begin taking music significantly till I began seeing that it may change my life.
And as soon as I began to see that, it’s like, you understand, to ensure that something to alter your life, you gotta deal with it prefer it’s gonna change your life. So coming from the South Facet of Chicago, I feel at 15, that’s after I received accepted to the Nationwide Youth Orchestra.
That was just like the [first] 12 months that they did NYO2. So from there, they flew me out. I went out to New York for the primary time, went to Philly, Miami — you understand, like a mini-tour.
Seeing that, that like motivated me to start out doing extra. After which I begin, like, you understand, profitable these competitions. I acquired scholarships. I began being positioned in rooms the place I may begin seeing totally different alternatives, and it additionally allowed for various alternatives to see me, you understand? So this has been a construct to that.
How was that transition into Juilliard? And what classes did you’re taking being from the South Facet of Chicago into an enormous metropolis like New York — two totally different, two fully totally different sides of the spectrum when it comes to atmosphere?
Yeah. Nicely, I wanna say, I wanna begin by saying New York and Chicago, they’re much more comparable than I anticipated them to be. New York is like Chicago on steroids. However inside that although, I’d say the Juilliard expertise is like its personal little bubble.
You realize, to actually reply your query, I don’t actually really feel like … I really feel like my expertise at Juilliard was type of like unlearning and redirecting the issues that I realized rising up, when it comes to studying to speak successfully, studying to articulate myself, turning into conscious of my feelings.
It’s like rising up like that, it’s virtually like we’re taught to … not even cover feelings — simply not have feelings virtually.
What tales or feelings would you say you’re most drawn to specific, like by way of your music and no matter you might create?
My job is simply to convey the imaginative and prescient of the composer and provides life to that. After all, I’ve my very own interpretations of that, nevertheless it’s within the framework of their imaginative and prescient.
Let’s use like Beethoven or Bach. So after I’m enjoying a brand new piece by them, I am going and I discover the recordings and stuff, after which I see, like, all proper, that is sure issues which are set in stone. That is the framework of it. After which you might have — it’s like, all proper, they did this, they did this.
It turns into a recreation of like phone. You realize, it’s like I’m determining like, all proper, I like what they did, I don’t actually like what they did. I feel I can do that. So you understand, it turns into that kind of factor.
After which there’s one other flip facet of it whenever you’re working with like residing composers, the place it’s like, all proper cool, I’ve entry to the first supply now. So, it’s like I do know precisely how they need it. I can provide my very own suggestions about like, “Oh, I feel this sounds higher if it’s like this.”
So how would you say your background is mirrored inside the music, when it comes to who you’re and the place you got here from?
It’s troublesome, I don’t actually have the chance to try this a lot. However I’ll say, it’s mirrored in the way in which that I hear the music.
Rising up, you might have the kind of music that you just’re drawn to, proper? Whether or not it’s like, no matter that’s. That adjustments the way in which that you just hear the music, otherwise you expertise otherwise you specific the music.
Black folks are typically extra rhythmically inclined. We hear the music like — you understand — soul music. So the place is that? So the way in which we consumption this and put it again out is gonna replicate that, you understand? I hope that is sensible.
What challenges do you face like as a Black man within the music world?
The most important problem was simply accepting the truth that I belong in any room that God places me in, which isn’t all the time the best to just accept when, like plenty of the occasions, I’m the one individual that appears like me or has had the identical experiences that I’ve had — which plenty of occasions I really feel like is extra necessary than pores and skin shade.
To be trustworthy, like, I do know plenty of occasions we convey it again to the entire pores and skin shade factor, nevertheless it’s like we bond over … I imagine that we bond over experiences, not pores and skin shade.
How have your accidents impacted your journey, slowed you down, or perhaps taken you on a special route, perhaps pressured you to study a brand new ability? Simply inform us a narrative about these.
All proper, so I’ll begin with the wrist first. Simply ’trigger I type of snort about that one now. We [were] enjoying basketball.
I used to be feeling it. I used to be sizzling this recreation. I’m like, you understand what? I’m gonna dunk on this man. And this dude, he’s tremendous tall, bro, he’s truly like 6’5″. However I used to be considering, I’m driving, I’m like, you understand what? I’m gonna go for it. I am going up. I don’t even assume bro jumped. He didn’t even soar. He put his palms up, and I simply got here down.
However from there I’m like — it was scary at first, simply because it’s like, only a bunch of uncertainty. Nearly the way it’s gonna have an effect on my profession, my plan. Will I have the ability to play the identical.
Nevertheless it ended up being a blessing although, ’trigger it allowed me to take that break from the music to type of like — [T]ake the break whereas I used to be nonetheless in class. So it was like, regardless that I used to be nonetheless so near it, I used to be nonetheless very far faraway from it, as a result of I’m simply — I’m not in a position to do something. It made me hungry in a way.
After which it additionally helped me get my love again for it, as a result of I’m like — I needed to begin over from floor zero, transforming that wrist up once more.
What’s subsequent for you?
What’s subsequent for me — properly, I’ll be persevering with my schooling. I’m going to San Francisco Conservatory of Music to get my grasp’s.
I do have — so my buddy, my nice buddy — actually a brother now — and composer Christopher Armstrong, he wrote a bit for me that I commissioned final month, however that needs to be releasing on social media someday within the fall. And yeah, that’s what’s subsequent.
What music do you presently have on repeat each single day?
“A lot Generator – Escapades” — it’s a bit by John Williams. He’s a movie composer. So this was from the Catch Me If You Can film — that I truly haven’t even seen but. On one other word — I received’t actually provide you with songs, however I’ll give like artists. I take heed to — you understand, heavy. Simply being from Chicago, you understand, gotta assist G Herbo.