{"id":40419,"date":"2016-03-29T09:36:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T13:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=40419"},"modified":"2022-09-28T11:14:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T15:14:46","slug":"music-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2016\/03\/29\/music-material\/","title":{"rendered":"Music material"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Passion<\/a>

Passion for playing lures music education major Alex Ryan from the family farm to Wright State. (Photos by Will Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

Farming is in his blood, but music is in his soul.<\/p>\n

Freshman Wright State University music education major<\/a> Alex Ryan spent much of his boyhood on a 50-acre farm near the Clark County village of Clifton, where he raised livestock to show during 4-H competitions at the county fair. All signs pointed to a career in agriculture.<\/p>\n

But Ryan\u2019s grandmother would take her young grandson to the Clifton Opera House every Saturday. And that\u2019s when his love affair with music began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was the greatest thing in the world hearing jazz music,\u201d he said. \u201cI was the youngest one there by far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan would go on to join the Springfield Children\u2019s Chorus. He later took up the trumpet and began taking lessons at Wright State when he was a freshman in high school.<\/p>\n

Ryan comes from a long farming lineage, going all the way back to tilling soil in the German state of Bavaria. His great-great-great-great-great grandfather came from Germany to Ohio to farm in 1905.<\/p>\n

Ryan grew up raising cattle, goats, pigs and sheep. It instilled a strong work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 8 years old first starting in 4-H, I was out there morning and night bottle-feeding my dairy calf and also feeding hogs and lambs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There were also great memories of picking apples and making cider. There was the occasional misstep \u2014 like the time 9-year-old Alex shaved his dairy calf for the fair when his parents were away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was botched,\u201d he said. \u201cShort hair here and long hair there. It was a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ryan is grateful for his down-on-the-farm experience. And even though he lives in a house near the family farm, he still spends nearly every day at the farm helping his younger brother and sister feed and walk their 4-H animals.<\/p>\n

Ryan also works at Young\u2019s Jersey Dairy, helping with the animals and driving tractors for hayrides and the corn maze. And he was recently hired as public relations coordinator for the Clark County Fair.<\/p>\n

\"After<\/a>

After college, Alex Ryan wants to teach music and aspires to be an orchestra conductor.<\/p><\/div>\n

A typical day for Ryan involves practicing his trumpet at Wright State before classes begin at 8 a.m. After classes end at 3 p.m., he practices some more and then returns home to do homework and chores. Then he goes to the family farm for an hour or two in the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work, but it\u2019s a fun time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ryan spent spring break touring Italy<\/a> with the Wright State University Collegiate Chorale and was able to sing during Mass at St. Peter\u2019s Basilica in Rome, an adventure he called \u201cbreathtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experiences I\u2019m getting here at Wright State are just as good, if not better, than if I were going to Julliard or Northwestern because the faculty here are some of the best,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are all inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan enjoys all kinds of music, from classical to rock \u2019n\u2019 roll to country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate it all, and I find beauty in all of it,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

After college, Ryan wants to teach music and aspires to be an orchestra conductor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not go to work every day loving what you do?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A passion for playing lures music education major Alex Ryan from the family farm to Wright State. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":40423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2037,4859,747,715,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-arts-scene","category-fine-and-performing-arts","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40419"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40427,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40419\/revisions\/40427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}