Community is where one finds a place to belong and a purpose to pursue. It can mean the difference between soaring with greatness or simply floating along. It is where leaders find their passion to shine and their reasons to thrive. The Emory Concert Choir community is no different, and it is where I have found my own passion and purpose to grow and thrive. The Emory Concert Choir is a family of diverse individuals who join together to fill each other’s lives up with song and laughter. It is where each of us has found our identity and expresses our passion for music.
Each precious breath that escapes between our lips echoes through the concert hall and is filled with our pride and joy. However, music is not a treasure to be guarded from others, but is instead a food for the soul that should overflow. Therefore, I have thusly devoted myself to let our music be known to the Emory community as our Publicity Chair. In order to increase our campus awareness and allow a larger number of students to enjoy our concerts, I have started a number of initiatives since being appointed.
During my freshman year, I noticed a lot of listeners came up after our concerts to express their gratitude. Many claimed to have been overwhelmed with joy and loved the beautiful sounds. Yet, many of these faces were not seen during the following concert. I realized that the problem lies within the lack communication of information; many simply did not know the date of our next concert. In order to increase communication, I began collecting email lists after each concert for those who wished to be informed of our future concerts.
Furthermore, our new YouTube pages and Facebook pages will now allow us to utilize social media to engage with the Emory community. These new tools will help us keep the Emory community informed of all our future ventures. However, awareness does not end with simply communicating information. It is equally important to develop and maintain an image and identity of our Choir as a whole. Just as a company advertises its brand image, we too plan on promoting our choir’s image.
During the academic year of 2012-2013, one of my largest initiatives is to identify the key characteristics of our choir, and create a campaign to promote that image. We have already begun designing apparel for the choir and revamping our website. The efforts made here will help shape Concert Choir’s place in the Emory community for the years to come. Over the past year, Emory Concert Choir has transformed from a group of singing strangers, to a family of friends supporting a common goal. I now know my role in improving our Concert Choir family and I know I have the capacity to achieve such greatness.