Chasing a Dream One Note at a Time

Story/Video posted November 15, 2019 in Arts & Entertainment by Annie Ward.

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Many kids dream of the day they get to learn an instrument in their first school band.  For Geoff Schneider his fourth grade band fueled a passion that motivated his future career goals.  Schneider, a senior music performance major at Penn State picked up his first saxophone in fourth grade; and has been studying music ever since. 

As Schneider became more immersed in music, he started to develop an interest in becoming a Band director.  During his freshman year of high school, Schneider approached his high school band director looking for advice about his future goals, and unknowingly found himself a mentor.  Schneider’s high school band director is an Alumni of Penn State School of Music as well as The Blue Band, and encouraged him to audition for the Penn State School of Music's music education program.  Schneider immersed himself in three months of private lessons before the big audition, and landed a spot in class of 2020.

Initially Schneider began playing the Saxophone, and had eight years of experience by his senior year of high school.  Looking to build his knowledge his seior year, Schneider began to learn piano, clarinet, and expand his saxophone knowledge.  Now four years later, Schneider has expanded his music knowledge and can play 18 instruments at varying skill levels. 

Schneider saw diverse opportunities for learning at Penn State, and chose to take advantage of them by changing his major from Music Education to Music Performance.  After his time at Penn State Schneider hopes to have a professional career as a jazz musician.  After a professional career Schneider has plans to get his Masters music and his teaching certificate to pursue his original dream of being a band director. 

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music , saxophone