Wednesday,June16,2021
Columbia Gorge News
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9
TDHS grad accepted to top music school
Neita Cecil
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
“I love to do energetic
music because I feel like I’m
super energetic, so it really
fits with me.”
RIANA ACEVEDO
She wants to write and
knew she wanted to
study music in college. produce songs, and figure
out staging, lighting to stage
Aiming high, she looked
outfits and what dance to do
into Juilliard, but found the
in what order.
famous school leans more
Saying she was “a very
to the classical side: Think
busy person before COVID,”
music theory and Mozart.
Acevedo listed her activ-
But the Berklee College
of Music in Boston, another
ities: Cheer, band, work,
top music school, hit just the basketball, and taking three
right note. She can major
college-level Advanced
in songwriting and music
Placement (AP) classes at
production, which is exactly once.
what the senior from The
She’s taken every AP class
Dalles High School wants to
the high school has offered,
do.
figuring it would make
“I really love school and I
college easier. She found she
love learning,” said Acevedo. likes going to school, doing
“But my passion has always
homework and getting good
been music.”
grades.
In high school, her only
Her enthusiasm befuddles
musical outlet was playing
both of her siblings. “Why
flute and serving as drum
do you like school?” they ask
major in band. She taught
her.
herself music production and
She explained, “I’m a very
songwriting.
social person and I like to be
“I enjoy playing flute. It
busy and I like to be involved
makes me happy, it’s music.” and I just like to be there.”
She also loves being on
She said, “I did do a lot in
stage. “I think that might
high school. I tried to do as
have come from cheer,”
much as I could. I felt like
which she did all four years of everything is tying up right
high school.
now, everything is clicking.”
“I really love to have a lot of
If she can’t swing Berklee
energy on the stage because I financially, she also got
love doing it.”
accepted to Portland State
She admires all the singers University, which has a
who do dance routines as
strong music program.
part of their show, and that’s
She’s always on time for
what she aspires to.
everything and works for her
A
Ariana Acevedo, who just graduated from The Dalles High School
and was accepted to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in
Boston, is pictured here in the artwork that accompanies the re-
lease of her song “Mask,” on Spotify and YouTube.
Contributed
photo
grades. “This is not some-
thing my parents told me —
‘You have to get really good
grades and be involved' — it
was something I wanted to
do myself.
“I’ve always been super
responsible because I’m
the oldest. My parents don’t
speak English, so I do a lot of
the translating."
“Very strict” about getting
eight hours of sleep, she
wakes, eats breakfast, “and I
get started with my day right
away. That’s how it is being a
busy person.”
Her friends razzed her for
never answering her phone.
If she is on her phone, it’s to
put a reminder in her calen-
dar, or to finish a document
for class.
Junior year, Acevedo was
in the Distinguished Young
Woman event. For her talent,
she sang a song she wrote. It
helped earn her runner up in
the competition.
For her audition with
Berklee, she decided to
write her own three-minute
song and perform it live
over Zoom. She credited her
interview experience from
DYW with helping in the
audition.
The song talked about
how she was feeling before
heading off to college. She
wanted it to give them an
insight into her as a person,
beyond her teachers’ letters
of recommendations.
Asked how she comes
up with her songs, she said,
“This probably sounds really
weird but it’s usually a vibe
that I get from the track I’m
making.”
She wanted to release an
original song of hers, “Mask,”
as part of the Berklee appli-
cation. “I posted on Spotify
and YouTube and iTunes. I
was very, very scared.”
She didn’t know how
people would react to her
creation. It is posted under
her nickname, Ari.
(You can find the song on
Spotify at open.spotify.com/
track/5ex7MmC2a8I4JdLgh-
fbsJa?si=t-mkDaomQ_iUk7i-
idJODeg and on YouTube at
youtu.be/-M8cEF1t8io)
She played with many
synthesizes and band music
to get nostalgic. She wanted
the song not too dark, but
a little dramatic, “like the
person was going through
something.
“If I do make it somewhere,
in the future, I want to repre-
sent that you do have a start
and there’s always room for
improvement.”
She recorded the song on
her “old” iPhone 7 Plus. “I’m
not kidding.”
She said, “I don’t even
know if I’m doing any of this
right. I’m just posting what I
know, what I can do on my
own. I want to get better.”
Her five-part audition
included improvising vocals,
seeing if she could sing in
tune, repeating rhythms
clapped to her, recognizing
chords and sight-reading
music.
She didn’t know how to
sight-read vocally, but she
can do it with the flute, so
she imagined what the note
would be on a flute and sang
it. “I was very slow, but I got
there.”
Acevedo’s uncle, who
taught himself violin while
growing up on a farm in
Mexico, is her musical
influence.
“I’ve noticed a lot of
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