This story deserves to be longer, but I wanted to share it this week.
For middle and high school, I went to art school. I studied to be a classically trained singer.
Every semester, we would have juries where we sang in front of the class. Everything was judged, from vocal technique to performance. It was very proper—
Except for this one time…
I don’t know what happened, but my friend Milan decided to buck the trend. He got up in front of the class to sing The Farmer and the Cowman from Oklahoma. He stood in front of us, the song started playing, and he yelled the lyrics at the top of his lungs.
It was like watching a 90’s alternative band sing Rodgers and Hammerstein. It felt like he did it in one breath. It was so joyful. Aaron and I were laughing so much that we were in tears.
As the purists in the room looked on in horror, Aaron and I gave the first and only standing ovation at a jury performance.
This week, I wanted to give one more standing ovation to the most outstanding performance I saw at Denver School of the Arts. I found out this week that Milan died last November. Thanks for all of the great memories, my friend.