Brynn Peters and Caroline Fountain started music classes at Hochstein at the same time at age 3, first in Little Singers with Alice Pratt, then joining Hochstein Youth Singers with Director Maryellen Giese in fourth grade through the present. They both also take voice lessons with Dr. Sandra Boysen Sluberski and have participated in Hochstein’s recitals.
Now they are high school seniors, with 15 years of singing together at Hochstein. They live in different towns, so they don’t get to see each other much outside of Hochstein, but have become close friends over the years.
Brynn lives in Charlotte and goes to Allendale Columbia. In addition to singing in her school choral groups, she plays trumpet and baritone in her school band and has been taking violin lessons at Hochstein with Michelle Walker for 3 years. She will be heading to Fordham University in the fall to major in English, but she plans to continue being involved in musical activities.
Caroline goes to Webster Thomas High School and has been involved in her school’s musicals, as well as other stage productions outside of school. She will be attending SUNY-Geneseo in the fall and majoring in Musical Theatre.
Caroline says, “There’s nothing else I would rather do with my life than be singing. … I feel like if I didn’t have Miss Giese, I’m not entirely sure that I would be going into music. She had such a big impact on my life. … She prepped me for how I should act in an ensemble and really paying attention.”
Brynn credited Giese for helping her learn better discipline, focus, and concentration – things that will help her throughout her life. Brynn adds, “When I was younger, I never felt like she was forcing me to learn, just that she made learning so fun and engaging.”
For their last year at Hochstein, they wanted to sing a duet together. In March, they performed “I Will Never Leave You” from Side Show for the Hochstein Youth Singers’ “3 Minutes of Fame” concert. This online version had them singing their parts separately at home, but then merged together with the magic of technology by Jon Madden. (Watch their video here.)
On June 5, they were able to sing together in person at the Hochstein Youth Singers’ end-of-year concert outdoors at Giese’s farm, this time performing “For Good” from the Broadway musical Wicked.
Their moving performance brought cheers and tears as they talked about their time at Hochstein and warmly embraced at the end of the song. Watch a video of this special moment (thanks to HYS parent Blair Hornbuckle for the video footage).
Both have wonderful memories of their years at Hochstein. Brynn shared a funny story of how when they first joined Youth Singers, Maryellen assigned Caroline to Alto 2 and Brynn to Soprano 1, based on a voice audition. But Brynn didn’t want to be separated from Caroline so instead she sang the Alto 2 part and continued to do so for several years.
They have attended a number of American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conferences over their years with Hochstein Youth Singers. These have been mainly out of town, so that meant driving there with their families, oftentimes in a snowstorm, and staying overnight. Both credit their families – and the families of other singers – for taking good care of all the students and supporting their music.
Caroline says, “I really owe it to my parents for signing me up for Hochstein. I think I would not be the same person today if I didn’t go to Hochstein. For many years, it was the best part of my week. … [Hochstein is] a piece of me now. I feel like if I stopped, a chunk of my being would be missing.”
Congratulations, Brynn and Caroline! We wish you all the best in the years to come, and please come back to visit.