It’s human nature to want to stay within your comfort zone and fear change. This can be extremely hard for people to cope with, but senior Paige Kueser found that choir aided in her learning how to let go and find peace within the uncomfortable.
Kueser, the first four-time KMEA All-State choir member from Chanute High School, has used music, as well as the several choirs and musicals she commits to, to overcome several personal struggles.
“The most difficult problem was overcoming my own perfectionism,” Kueser said. “Both in myself and not projecting my own perfectionism onto other people, because that’s what destroys a choir.”
Part of this struggle in overcoming perfectionism was learning how to cooperate with others in a productive manner.
“You have to be working together all the time, and you have to fully trust each other,” Kueser said. “When you’re just picking apart everything you hear, that kind of debases the trust that you have in your ensemble.” Through this trust built with another during rehearsals, meaningful connection blossomed.
“In our arts program, we’re so tight knit that we provide each other with a support system, and that I love my choir people,” Kueser said. “It’s fun, and [choral director Rebecca Davis] is also really supportive of me and everything I do.”
As a senior, though, the time grows near for Kueser to say goodbye to the people and the experiences accumulated in the past four years of choirs and musicals.
“I’ve been involved in music in Chanute for so long,” Kueser said. “I’m sad to leave it behind because it’ll never be the same again, but I’m so grateful to carry these memories with me for the rest of my life.”
One of Kueser’s favorite experiences from high school was singing with former CHS choir members, an event where alumni met, rehearsed and sang with the top auditioned group, Select Ensemble, at their spring concert.
“I saw where all these people went,” Kueser said. “I saw their lives after choir, but they still carried a piece of choir with them, and I found that really inspiring and really humbling.”
While we often seek to hold on to what we love and never want to let go, life goes on and we must eventually lose what we love.
“I really enjoy the ephemerality of choir pieces,” Kueser said. “It makes it that much more beautiful, because you know that it’s never gonna happen again in exactly this way. It makes you want to just put yourself all out there– and have fun doing it.”
