(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Months before beginning college as a physics major, Trevor Nicholas, a music lover and piano improviser, changed his tune.
"I realized it would be neat if I could explore this healing power of music more deeply," he said. "It would be neat if I could help understand it enough to teach it so that I could raise a whole crop of young people to wield that power in their communities.”
Fast forward to now. The Minnesota native is the music teacher at Chicago's Senn High School. Like just about everyone, he had to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Music is a communal activity," Nicholas said. "Trying to be an ensemble from different spaces was nearly impossible.”
But that changed with Nicholas' own composition, titled "Who Will Carry Me?" Students recorded their individual parts from home, all of which culminated in a music video that was released in the fall of 2020.
"It became a love letter to ourselves,” he said. “As it was released, it was able to be a love letter outwards—to our school, to our community, to our city. We're just thrilled that it was received with such open arms and we're thrilled that it was able to do some good work, uplifting others and giving them hope.”
The project also earned Nicholas a Grammy nomination, for 2022 Educator of the Year.
"I saw opportunities for my students, funding was going to come easier, our messages of hope, care and healing were going to go further," he said. "It's been an amazing journey, and I hope this can continue to do good work in the world.”
As for what's next, Nicholas said he has a follow-up music video "The Cave," along with numerous other projects.
No matter where the music takes him, he said he'll continue to turn to the words of a mentor to make a difference for others: Who you are, right now, is enough.
"If we can remind those around us that who they are is enough, this is going to do some good work,” he said.
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