Before I became involved with Dr. Charles S. Hausmann I didn’t see myself as a serious musician or someone who could actually compete in the real world of music outside the limited realm of southern Kentucky. Sure, I thought I was fairly good, but Dr. Hausman instilled in me and in my classmates the fact that we could become fine musicians and professionals capable of competing on the world stage.

Not only did he instill this in us at Western Kentucky University, but led us by placing us on the blocks for competitions and ultimately took us on our European Choir Tour, performing with Neville Marriner, in Mozart’s Requiem and the St. Moritz Festival Tour.

Excellence in music requires not only talent, skill and education, but also a healthy dose of belief that you can do it for real. Without the assumption that you can do it, you really simply can’t, nor will you do what is necessary to put your faith on the line.

Music requires risk

It requires risk, and it takes a lot of guts to get through all of the learning and failures to enjoy the successes. Above all it takes patience and time and these are the two elements that are most easily shaken when your belief dwindles.

If there is anything I learned from a life in music is that quitting is not a quality that musicians can have, and that means especially quitting in their belief in themselves and in the value of what they are doing.

What is music worth?

Placing a ”market value” on being a musician or artist of any kind is difficult, because the true value of it is something beyond worldly or monetary. Everyone senses the high value of music, but nobody is quite sure why, not even me. I honestly can’t really tell you why it is important, I just know that it is very important, and it is difficult to convince the world that there are actually many other things that are more important. Just look at the most popular videos on youtube…music outranks everything else by a long shot.

Dr. Hausmann proved to me and my classmates that we had value beyond the worldly monetary value, that what we do is of the highest integrity that exists, the enjoyment of life in itself and taking the time to sing a beautiful song is a large part of being a complete human being!