Alone. In a new big city. No family. No friends.

Just music.

For two weeks of senior Caroline Whyte’s summer, her life was defined by the Vocal Choral Intensive at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. During the duration of this program, Caroline spent nearly ten hours per day perfecting her craft of music. Her day consisted of theory, diction, sight reading classes, voice lessons, solo voice lessons, performance classes, and then choir rehearsals.

“We were worked pretty hard, but it was all pretty fun,” Caroline said. “I learned so much, and there were constantly notes being taken. The professors were so brilliant, and I learned so much in those two weeks.”

From her time at camp, Caroline says she has developed into a stronger singer. She feels as though her breathing techniques, lower register, resonating techniques, and more have all improved.

“I think I have a better understanding for my voice and myself as a performer,” Caroline said. “I’ve created and buckled down some more things in my voice.”

Upon first arrival, Caroline was forced to make some quick adjustments. Not only did she have to learn to cope with the distance between herself and her friends, but she also had to adjust to the abilities of the other singers around her. The first few days, she describes “a divide” present between the musical theater singers and the classical singers. But quickly, she grew comfortable with the people around her.

“I [originally] felt kind of out of place, and I felt not as prepared,” Caroline said. “But then I realized that I had my own abilities, and they can’t really compare with other people’s as their’s can’t compare with mine. It’s really [about] finding yourself and knowing who you are as a performer– that’s the most important thing.”

After overcoming the initial divide, Caroline grew close with the people around her and her roommates. They all grew close from not only all the time spent together rehearsing, but also from running around the city of Boston together on weekends. Together, they participated in fun pastimes including seeing Wicked, going on boat tours, and just exploring the city.

This valuable experience at Boston helped her learn and plan accordingly for her future. Caroline credits her time there to helping her gain a better understanding of her college plans. Seeing the campus in a city setting helped her understand what she wants when picking a school. Although she doesn’t currently plan on attending Boston Conservatory for her Bachelor’s, she would consider it a contender for her Master’s. At the moment, Caroline plans on pursuing both a musical and academic degree.

On top of learning more about college, her time at Boston Conservatory helped her grow and develop as a person. While in Boston, attendees of the intensive were from all around the world. Due to this, Caroline learned all about other’s perspectives and cultures, and she grew to have a better understanding for the people around her.

“There were people from all across the world,” Caroline said. “It was really cool to experience how that melting pot works and how my college experience will be with not people from just Michigan but [with] people from all over the world. Just meeting and being exposed to different types of singers too helped me picture myself in the grand scheme of things.”

Caroline grew as a performer from her time at Boston Conservatory, but also grew as a songwriter. She recognizes that her time there helped her grow more inspired and motivated to publish her original pieces. Currently, Caroline has one original song published on Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud. Her song, titled “Woven,” was published officially last August. She worked alongside another teenager from North Carolina on the internet, and her single was born.

“When I first heard Caroline’s single “Woven,” I was overcome with mixed emotions,” Caroline’s father, Tony Whyte, said. “I was so proud of her songwriting creativity and her honest expression of love, and the song’s structure and melody was beautiful.”

Caroline views her first single as a starting point for her original career. She is not incredibly proud of the style but views the process of creating the single as a learning opportunity. She hopes that her next original release will help define her sound as an artist more.

More recently, Caroline has worked with junior Abby Stead to create music. They released a cover of “Brazil” by Declan McKenna and have been focused on writing music together. The dynamic duo has learned about each other’s writing styles to create the best music possible.

“We write differently,” Abby said. “When we do music together, she does the lyrics and the melody, and then I do all the instrumental stuff.”

Of course with the creation and expression comes risk. Both Abby and Caroline have expressed their hesitations with publishing music due to the high school environment. However, they both agreed that the music they make is for themselves, and the judgments of others does not matter in the grand scheme of things.

“My point for making music is to make art and express myself,” Caroline said. “That sounds so cliche. It’s not for anyone else; it’s for my own spiritual purging. So when other people hear it, it’s nerve-wracking and scary because it comes from the heart, literally.”

No matter the cost of the music they make, the music has helped Caroline and Abby grow closer together. Their bond of music has made the two of them closer and able to understand each other to an extent unlike any other.

“You really know what’s going on in someone’s head,” Abby said. “You know what they’re writing about or how they think.”

Caroline’s current writing process is not something that can be verbalized simply. Some days, she can sit down and hammer out an entire song in one session. Other days, she looks through her notes and scrolls through the bits and pieces of ideas that came to her one at a time.

“It’s kind of cool to see how those fragments can piece together when they’re ready to be pieced together,” Caroline said.

Caroline’s expression found in her song writing has taken her down many different paths. Although she started songwriting at a young age with music based off of artists like Ashlee Simpson, Caroline just recently began songwriting once again. She currently is enrolled at Triumph Music Academy located on Wealthy Street. Triumph is a place where independent artists grow their craft and learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to being an independent artist. Her short-term goals involving Triumph is to publish an EP. She already has the title, Mixed, in mind and has planned the album artwork.

Although she is currently unsure where her songwriting journey will take her, it’s clear to those around her how music has changed her.

“I have seen Caroline grow so much as a person because of music,” Caroline’s mother Jenny Whyte said. “She has become such an expressive person, like by becoming more articulate, expanding her ideas, and [being] so open to all [the] ideas expressed by others. I have also seen her confidence in herself blossom.”

To be put simply, Caroline wouldn’t be the person she is today without music. Music has forever changed her and will forever have a large place in her heart.

“Without music, I wouldn’t be myself,” Caroline said. “My entire world would lack a necessary element of passion, emotion, and expression. I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”