Musical Talents of a Psychology Major
Anthony Hardy is a 21-year-old senior Psychology major with a double minor in Music and Sociology. He started out wanting to be a therapist or counselor but is now working towards a career in Social Work. He told me that he chose his major because he wanted to help people in life. Anthony will be getting his Master’s in Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh after he graduates in May 2021. “I picked up a minor in sociology to further enhance my future goals, but my music minor was purely out of passion.”, he said.
Anthony has been singing in choir since he was in the fourth grade and anywhere else that he could sing. He has participated in show choir, the all-state singing competition, musicals including The Addams Family production at Fairmont State in the Fall of 2018 and is currently a paid singer in his church. Many of his friends know him for his ability to sing, play piano, and play guitar, but what they don’t know is that he tends to dabble with any instrument he can get his hands on: “I own some weird and unique instruments, like a jaw harp, a Milano Organetto, a psaltery, and an ocarina, and they’re all incredibly fun.”
His love of music started in middle school when he first joined show choir and it helped him break out of his shell. Show choir helped him open-up when he started getting on stage and performing with a team, competing across the state. Anthony says that he likes to adapt and experiment with different styles so that he can see music from different viewpoints. He told me that his favorite genres jump all over the place, his top three being metal (mainly nu-metal), post grunge, and swing. Regarding his personal style, he says, “I use the music of those styles for instrumentation, yet, when I sing, I base it off of the styles of Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran, and Bruno Mars.”
As far as performing and competing goes, he typically prepares by singing the songs all the way through until he gets them memorized. After memorizing the songs, he tries to add some style to them and give it some of his unique personality. “Every song tells a story, but no story is complete without a little acting in it.”
Anthony has been preparing for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) for the past couple months, and this week he will be submitting his audition. He was in the same competition last year and it was fun, but this year is very different. Last year the singers had physical competitions in other states and got to go on to the national rounds after the tri-state and regional. However, this year will be entirely virtual because of Covid-19. So, Dr. Spears, Professor Morrison, and Anthony will be putting together a recording to submit and are hoping all goes well from there.
“Music changed my life through that, and I wanted to let it carry me as far as it could, and now it’s carried me here.”
