STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Singing Brings Personal Joy, Opportunities for Horrell Hill Fifth-Grader Taylor Sumter

No matter where she is, you’ll find Taylor Sumter singing.

“Singing makes me feel happy inside. Music is my life,” she said.

Taylor, a fifth-grade student at Horrell Hill Elementary School, comes from a musically talented family. She, her parents and her grandfather sing in church choirs. Ebony McBeth, Taylor’s mother, says singing at church boosted her daughter’s love for singing.

“With all the different programs and different things, even just watching my father sing, I believe it was a great influence on Taylor with her love for music,” said McBeth.

In addition to her parents and grandfather, Taylor’s aunt sings background vocals for different gospel artists and is a voice teacher.

“I look up to her [my aunt] and I want to be like her,” Taylor said.

When Horrell Hill’s Eagle Choir was formed in the 2022-2023 school year, Taylor immediately jumped at the opportunity to join.

“When Ms. Osborne [Horrell Hill’s music teacher] told me she was going to start a chorus, I wanted to be the first to sign up to get that experience of chorus in school,” she said.

This school year is Taylor’s third year in the Eagle Choir. In the chorus, she says she learns how to improve the pronunciation of words in her songs and to make sure she opens up her mouth while singing.

Taylor says she enjoys the opportunities the chorus provides, including singing at the South Carolina State House and in Richland One’s elementary honor choir.

“I have opportunities to do things that I probably wouldn’t be able to do if I weren’t in chorus,” she said.

Taylor says she was especially excited to the join the honor choir because of the opportunity to be with other students across the district and to be performing on stage. During her time with the honor choir, Taylor learned a song in Latin.

“It’s my favorite song I’ve sung so far. It wasn’t too hard for me to learn the song. To me, it was easy because Ms. Osborne taught us how to pronounce the words. As long as I knew how to pronounce the words and stay on beat, it was easy,” she said.

When learning a new song, Taylor says she normally prefers listening to how it goes in order to understand it.

“If you just tell me the lyrics and give me the melody with you singing it, then that will help me learn it more than me reading it off of a paper,” she said.

Taylor says music can help express her emotions. When she grows up, she says she wants to be a child psychologist and incorporate music into her sessions.

“Music can help get people in tune with their emotions instead of bottling up their feelings,” Taylor said.

When Taylor is singing or listening to music at home, McBeth can tell how her daughter is feeling.

“It helps me realize what mood she’s in and what she’s going through. It opens her up and allows her to talk when she’s going through something,” she said.

Taylor says she’s looking forward to continuing to sing in chorus when she gets to middle school and high school.

McBeth hopes music will continue to play a big part in her daughter’s life, and that it can lead to more educational opportunities.

“I pray she sticks with it. Hopefully, it’ll lead to scholarships and different things of that nature with the passion that she has,” she said.

March is Music in Our Schools Month. For information about Richland One’s visual and performing arts programs, go to www.RichlandOne.org and click on Visual and Performing Arts under Departments.