Ralph Gonzales

For his senior photos Harrison Whitfield poses with his trumpet. Whitfield expressed his love for music and how it came to be in America. “It’s just so cool to me the piano and the organ came from Europe and then more rhythmic stuff like drums came from Africa,” Whitfield said. “They met through unfortunate circumstances, through the Middle Passage and like Triangle Trade, like these really tragic events, but people bonded over music and created new genres once they reached America.” Photo courtesy of Ralph Gonzales.

As the months wind down and the final concert arrives, a daunting realization is etched into the back of his head. Taking a deep breath, he knows this is the last musical performance he will have in high school. Anxiety creeps onto his skin knowing the future awaits him. In a bittersweet ending, and all of senior Harrison Whitfield’s memories, the good and the bad, rush back to him. 

Whitfield faced difficulties throughout the year, especially recently when his house flooded. Despite this, he said he has tried to stay motivated as he participates in music and academics.

“My favorite thing about high school has definitely been the friendships and relationships that I formed,” Whitfield said. “There are people that I’ve known for one year or two years that I’m confident they’ll be at my wedding [and] know my children even though I just met them recently.”

Band takes up a lot of time in a student’s life, from preparing for a concert, state competition or nationals. It’s hard to maintain a good balance, but Whitfield said he has several motivations that push him to be a hardworking student.

“I want to be a good example for my sister,” Whitfield said. “I want to be able to provide for my parents once they get too old and just kind of think about [providing for my family] as a very long term thing.”

Whitfield said the band speaks to him through the notes and melodies it plays, it is truly something special to him and everything he has learned from it will stick with him for the rest of his life.

“I’ve known [Mr. Yee] for so long now, and because of my experiences and accomplishments, we’ve grown really close,” Whitfield said. “Some of the things that [Mr. Yee has] been able to talk to me about are extremely motivating and extremely inspiring. I know I’ll take a lot of [what he said] with me whenever I go to college and get a career [and use it] to motivate me.”

Whitfield’s class has collectively won three state championships and placed fifth at Grand Nationals. Whitfield himself has made Area on trumpet for the past two years, and he placed third at a young artist competition. Whitfield, along with a few other trumpet players, also won a national trumpet competition.

“Performances can be super rewarding, especially towards the end of the season [when] it’s just a huge culmination of a lot of hard work put in over several months,” Whitfield said. “This last year, our final performance in Indianapolis at [Grand Nationals] was probably the most rewarding experience of my whole life, since it was my last performance with the marching band. It symbolized all of the work I have put in over the last four years.”

When Whitfield reached high school, his biggest motivation to stay in the band was his former bandmate, Nathan Harward. Harward is another trumpet player with extensive knowledge of music who taught Whitfield all about playing the trumpet.

“The way that [Harward] talked about music is just so inspiring,” Whitfield said. “You can tell how much he loves it.  [Music is] like his primary form of communication, above the English language, [and] he uses music to communicate. He inspired me to try to do the same thing.”

Whitfield will attend The University of Texas at Austin and will major in trumpet performance, then hopes to major in business administration in his junior and senior years.

“In fifth grade, we got to decide what instruments we wanted to play and I really wanted to play Trombone,” Whitfield said. “I tried it out and it was my first choice [but] they told me my lips were too small, so [they] put [me] on trumpet because it’s similar. Then I fell in love with the trumpet, and I have not stopped playing it since then.”