BEAR CREEK — Carolyn England always gravitated to the flute.
Her obsession began when she was just 6 and saw someone on TV playing the long silver instrument. She was captivated by the poise of the musician on screen — upright posture, lips delicately placed over the mouthpiece and the graceful energy of the music.
It wasn’t until she got to 5th grade at J.S. Waters School, though, that Carolyn got to play one for the first time. The moment she’d anticipated for five years finally arrived. She tried to emulate that flautist she saw on TV — shoulders back, hands steady. But when she blew into it for the first time, nothing came out.
“I couldn’t get a sound,” Carolyn said. “It was incredibly frustrating.”
But if you think Carolyn let that initial stumble stop her, well, you don’t know her. From that day forward she practiced as often as she could.
“I never had to keep after Carolyn about practicing flute,” her mother, Angie Fusco said. “I’d catch her watching flautists on the internet, and she was always in her room practicing.”
Carolyn, now a senior at Chatham Central High School, recently saw the fruits of her labor pay off. In January, she was named to the Chatham County Schools All-District Band for the flute — the only person to earn the honor from her school.
While 33 CCS students in total were named to the All-District Band, Carolyn’s accomplishment is a rarity. She is one of the first students to ever receive the All-District recognition from Chatham Central and the only CCS student to make this year’s 11th/12th-grade band for flute.
She said she hopes her accomplishments pave the way for future successes in the Chatham Central band program.
“I want everyone here to just have that love for it like I do,” Carolyn said. “I want the band room to feel like a place they can keep coming back to.”
The historic accomplishment will be remembered for years to come after Carolyn graduates this spring. In many ways, her peers are already feeling the impact of her hard work.
Her band director, Keegan Couse, said Carolyn’s dedication in the band room serves as a model to others. The current Chatham Central band is largely younger students — of the 12 members, just two are seniors and zero are juniors.
“Carolyn is probably the hardest working student I’ve had the chance to meet,” Couse said. “Her work ethic really separates her from her peers in a lot of ways.”
Couse said Carolyn is emblematic of the attitude he hopes students bring every day. He said he wants other band members to realize there is an opportunity in the arts if they put in the work.
“This sort of honor may be commonplace in other schools, but it hasn’t been here for some time,” Couse said. “I think that’s really important that students can see, ‘somebody who is like me, is from a similar place to me, who’s in the same program that I am, can go and achieve this kind of thing.’”
All-District Band members went to Durham for a two-day intensive clinic Jan. 28-29 to participate with students from other districts including Alamance, Caswell, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Guilford, Orange, Person, Randolph, Rockingham, Vance and Warren county schools.
Students were tasked with playing several highly technical pieces of music, and those who placed in the top six spots at auditions were then eligible to compete in states. Carolyn did not place high enough to compete at states, but she said just making it to Durham was a big enough achievement.
“I really enjoyed it and just had the best time,” she said.”I wasn’t perfect, but I just tried to give myself grace and be proud to be there in this place I’ve wanted to be for four years.”
Much of Carolyn’s success is thanks to her strong work ethic and self-driven nature, something she attributes to her strong support system. She has a natural tenacity for learning and a desire to never settle for second-best.
“I just love learning new things every day,” she said. “It’s always interesting to challenge myself and feel like I’m good at something. That’s what I really love about the flute.”
Fusco said Carolyn has always been self-motivated, but a lot of her success in music is a result of teachers who believed in her, too.
“Carolyn is a ‘go-getter’ when it comes to her musical aspirations,” Fusco said. “She has also been beyond blessed to have some wonderful teachers who have mentored her as a person and a musician. Their personal interest in her as a person, student and musician have been inspiring and life changing.”
Many of the students who made up the CCS All-District Band had consistent music programs at their school. At Chatham Central, however, the band director has fluctuated and there’s been limited participation in the program. Where other students had consistent mentorship throughout high school, Carolyn had to make her own way through self discipline.
“It’s been really difficult to build a program,” Carolyn said.
Couse, who’s in his second year as Central’s band director, said many students didn’t prioritize band as an activity during COVID-19, and the program is still feeling the impact.
“I’m the latest in a long line of band directors here,” Couse said. “But to me, building up band as a community is super important. I want them to have a home in band and for all of our students to feel welcomed in a place like high school that can feel overwhelming.”
Unlike many students, Carolyn used the peaks of the pandemic to continue honing her craft. She practiced on Zoom with her former band teacher at Keith Gilbert, who’s now at Seaforth High School.
“I’d be the only one that would show up to his classes,” Carolyn said. “He’d work with me on things like minor scales or improving my major scales, which I often struggle with.”
Carolyn also didn’t wait around for her school’s program to improve. Instead, she took advantage of the resources in the area. Last year, she started really enjoying playing marches, but Central doesn’t have a marching band. So, she decided to go to Jordan-Matthews High School to play with its marching band.
“A dream doesn’t become reality unless you work for it,” Carolyn said. “That’s what’s made me want to push myself to be where I want to be.”
She was quickly welcomed by the J-M band, and attended rehearsals there twice a week after school.
After graduation, Carolyn is dedicating her can-do attitude to musical theater. She plans to major in theater in college with dreams of making it to Broadway one day. And while it’s rare that Carolyn doesn’t achieve the things she sets her mind to, she said “plan B” is to play in pit orchestras.
“I just want music to stay with me forever,” she said. “It’s been a huge part of my life and it just fills my heart with so much passion and love — it helps me see the world and myself differently.”
Over the summer, Carolyn participated in French Woods theater camps in New York. Three days per week, Carolyn also now drives to Raleigh after school to participate at North Carolina Conservatory theater classes where she trains in singing, dancing and acting.
Recently, Carolyn said she’s adopted a new mantra: “You say my dreams are too big, watch me become big.” She says she realizes visions of Broadway are grandiose or perhaps idyllic, but that doesn’t make them unattainable.
Reporter Ben Rappaport can be reached at brappaport@chathamnr.com or on Twitter @b_rappaport