At the early and alarming time of 6:45, junior Lydia Burr’s perfunctory day begins an hour before the vast majority of her peers. While most students would think that waking up that early would be tantamount to death, Lydia feels it’s worth it for zero hour choir.

“I love Central Singers mostly because, even though it’s early in the morning and I’m exhausted, everyone in there really really cares about music,” Lydia said. “They want to enjoy it; they’re taking time out of their morning to be there.”

Lydia is a part of the smallest of the four choirs offered at FHC. Central Singers is a jazz choir that is audition only. The two “catches,” for lack of a better word, is that in order to become a member, one must be participating in another one of the three “regular” choirs and must audition, as well. Lydia is also a member of the upperclassmen group Chorale.

“I love being in choir; it’s probably my favorite class of the day, both Chorale and Central Singers,” Lydia said.  “I love it partially because of the community that’s in there, but also I love the people there. Mr. Ivory is such a good teacher, and it’s a chill class.”

Although Lydia cites choir as her “favorite class of the day,” her affinity for music is not restricted to the school hours. She actively pursues music at home, too, as does the rest of her family.

“I’ve grown up around music,” Lydia said.”Pretty much everyone in my family plays an instrument or has played an instrument or can sing. It’s pretty cool.”

Along with singing, Lydia can play the guitar, ukelele, violin, and piano. Her piano playing has been going on the longest with six years of lessons from Lydia’s mom and taking classes at Music Academy. 

The ability to play such a wide variety of musical instruments has afforded Lydia the ability to take a step back and compare the differences between them all.  

“I think I prefer singing [to playing an instrument] just because you can do a lot more,” Lydia said. “You have a lot more options than [with] instruments. You can go and make it your own; whereas, in piano or reading sheet music, you can arrange pieces. But for the most part in lessons, you’re just reading, and you don’t really change much of that. I think it’s fun to find all the different ways to alter the music you’re singing through the tone of your voice.”

Lydia is able to explore the ins and outs of her voice for fun or out of curiosity, but singing and music, in general, play an even larger role in her life than just casual experimentation. Lydia uses music as an outlet in her busy life.

“[Music in my life] kind of started because my family was doing it, and then it became a distressing factor for me,” Lydia said. “I feel like music definitely plays a role in destressing [me]. Especially during the school year, I tend to get a lot of anxiety and stress, and music is just kind of a way to let that all go, which has been fortunate.”

The destressing factor Lydia finds in music would typically be linked to aiding with the notorious stress of junior year, but so far Lydia hasn’t found the stress to live up to the hype. 

“I’ve heard last year that junior year is the hardest year, but for me, I mean we’re only four weeks in, I wouldn’t say that it’s my most difficult year,” Lydia said. “Freshman year was difficult just because the classes were different, and it was a level up that I wasn’t quite anticipating. But, I think that being in high school for the last couple of years [has] prepared [me] for it more, and my schedule’s not that difficult. And I like breaking it up with a couple of different choir [classes], which helps.”

Again, it all comes back to having music as a part of Lydia’s life. Be it zero hour, Chorale, singing at home, or playing an instrument, music finds a way to seep into her life. 

“I love playing music, but during the school year, even though I’m busy, I find time to [have it] because I think it really helps,” Lydia said.