Freshman Lyric Christian is used to singing in front of audiences, but at the recent Black History Month assembly in McCain she was faced with a new challenge: performing alone in front of 500 peers. During her performance, audience-members were silent, listening in awe of the harmonious and confident voice coming from the second-semester freshman.
“I’ve been singing since I was two years old,” said Christian. “My mother always played Ella Fitzgerald in the car, and I started scatting along with her.”
From there, her music career took off. She performed in front of her first audience at age five and began taking voice lessons in the second grade.
“I’ve also sung with the Atlanta Young Singers since I was eight,” said Christian. “My experience with AYS, along with All State, has really helped me with music theory and sight reading.”
At school, Christian is a member of the chorus, having begun in middle school and now continuing in high school.
“Mr. [Fred] Scott and Mr. [Adam] Fry have always been there for me, in class and in backwork,” she says. “They have also taught me the importance of patience–I’m not going to sing a song perfectly the first time I try it.”
Since she first heard Ella Fitzgerald on the radio, Christian has always seen her mother as a source of motivation for her music. “I got my voice from her,” Christian says. “She always pushes me to do my best.”
Though only a freshman, Christian has her future in mind.
“I really want to be a doctor,” she said, “but I want to incorporate singing into my adult life.”
She would also “love to try out for American Idol.”
One of the most valuable lessons Christian has learned from her singing experience is to be unafraid to make mistakes.
“Mistakes are inevitable, and they will happen. I’ve learned to not be discouraged because you have one bad day,” said Christian. “I still get nervous on stage, and because of that, I’ll forget to open myself up to an audience, but you can’t be afraid to try something new or different, because you never know what is best for you until you try.”
