Beams heads to dream college to study music

When Stella Beams began thinking about college, she felt divided between her safe goal of becoming a nurse, and her dream studying music and becoming a full time singer/songwriter. 
 When she expressed this dilemma to the high school college readiness counselors, they told her “dreams first – always.” So Beams applied and after an extensive interview and audition process was accepted into her dream college: The Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. 
 Beams has been singing and playing the piano her whole life, and she first began performing at the age of 8 when she played Annie in the TVCC musical.  The dream of performing full time has always been there
 The Berklee College of Music is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music. Famous alumni includes John Mayer, Steven Tyler, Meghan Trainor, and Melissa Etheridge. 
 With a 25 percent acceptance rate, the application and interview process for Berklee is extensive. Along with the traditional application, Beams had to write an essay and send in recordings of her performing. After she was notified that she qualified for an interview, she had to travel to Boston for the in-person audition. 
 She was told to have a prepared piece, but after she sang that, she was surprised when they asked her to perform one of her originals. After singing her original piece, “I didn’t See,” she was then asked to sing “If I ain’t got you” chosen by the judges and site read with piano accompaniment.
 While the judges seemed nice and interested in her performance, Beams had no idea how she did other than when she was told during the interview portion after her audition that a long audition is usually a good sign.  
 Although she was told she might not hear back until January, she found out she was accepted to her dream school on her “golden” 18th birthday on Dec. 18. 
 Beams plays five instruments, but her main focuses are piano and voice. While she is mostly self taught, she learned some of her piano from the late Debbie Johnson, who loved her natural ear for music, and Nathan Eliason, who challenged her to site read those unfamiliar songs she couldn’t play by ear. 
 Beams dreams of performing because when she performs, it feels like nothing else in the world  really matters. 
 “When you’re playing a busy event, like a restaurant or coffee shop and all of a sudden the whole room gets quiet, you know your music is touching people,” Beams said. 
 Beams grew up listening to a variety of music, so she focuses a lot on the lyrics. Her influences range from Bob Dylan to Alicia Keys. She loves to find acoustic recordings of artists because she loves the effect of the live raw performances when the music stands a lone. 
 Beams said that she loves performing in Weiser and is working on planning a solo concert in late April or early May to celebrate with the community and her fans before she leaves for Boston.
 

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