From placing in the all region honor choir to now preparing for state solo and ensemble, the fine arts has been an integral part of Kayla Jesselle Ballesil’s high school career. Ballesil, a founding member of Emerson’s choice program and oboist in the band, has decided to continue pursuing her passion of music post graduation at UNT.

Ballesil’s dedication to the arts began at a young age.

“I’ve been in both band and choir since middle school and I’ve always been really passionate about music, since I grew up in a family that loves to sing,” said Ballesil.

Post graduation, Ballesil has decided to continue her musical education and will be double majoring in Oboe Performance and Computer Science at UNT.

“I specifically picked UNT because I know their music program is absolutely amazing,” Ballesil said. “I’m very excited to work with all sorts of new people and make music together. I decided to double major mostly because it’s the ‘safer’ option, but I’m also interested in computer science as it’s the field my dad works in and my sister is also a computer science major.”

Choir has been a community that Ballesil has been a part of from the start. As an original member of Emerson’s choir program, Ballesil doesn’t only see choir as a place to practice music but a place to share her passion for music with her companions.

“Choir is where most of my friends are, so going to choir always means that I can have a good time and make music with my favorite people without having to worry about anything else,” Ballesil said.

However, to Ballesil, the best part of choir is the performance aspect. Seeing weeks of rehearsals and practices with her fellow choir members come to fruition at concerts has been an experience she’ll never forget.

“It’s the most satisfying culmination of all of our hard work, and it always makes me so happy when people from the audience tell me that we did a good job,” Ballesil said.