Mountains draw creatives, whether it’s writers, singers or musicians.
It’s a mountain where the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute (OSAI) has made its home - Quartz Mountain, to be specific -- and seeing those peaks for the first time made a significant impression on recent Chandler grad Ian Radcliffe when he was 16.
“Oklahoma’s pretty flat, and just seeing mountains on the horizon, and then coming through the mountains and coming down and turning that corner and seeing the performing arts hall was really phenomenal,” he said.
Radcliffe is currently in his fifth and final year at OSAI. He auditioned for the first time when he was fresh out of eighth grade, taking advantage of his summer birthday to try out a year earlier than most of his classmates.
He added that all he had was hope. Hope that his audition as an eighth grader was enough to compete against seniors and older students.
“I knew… how prestigious it is to make it in because my brother attended in 2019 and the 2020 at-home, course at-home. So I knew the standards and I knew that it was difficult, and I knew it was going to be hard,” he said.
OSAI said this year nearly 800 students auditioned for the chance to attend. They selected over 230 of the state’s top high school artists for the two-week intensive study program.
Radcliffe has attended every year as part of the choir, though he has also auditioned for the orchestra, playing French horn. He considered auditioning for both this year, but decided to stay with choir as it was something he was familiar with and where all his people were.
The grad said that being at Quartz and in a room full of people who are better than him puts him in his place and gives him room to grow. “Not just as a musician but as a person and in all creative aspects, because you know I’ve been in the choir every year, but there are people in creative writing or dance that I’ll learn things from, and it’s just marvelous,” he said. “Learning from people who are better than me, not just in a musical aspect, but just being like an outlook on life, has just really grown me as a person and how I interact with the world and the way I think.” OSAI is definitely not for the faint of heart. Rehearsals for him start in the morning with sectionals, before moving into full group rehearsals for an hour and a half. Radcliffe said they then have a community lab, where the students learn about art forms from around the world. He’s learned about Chinese poetry and West African dancing in previous years. This year, they’re learning about South Asian dancing. After lunch, the intensity is amped up. “It’s a lot of singing and rehearsing. And it’s intense,” he said. “Thishasbeenexplainedbyevery single, every year, at choir. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. So pace yourself. Don’t be screaming. But it’s a lot of singing, a lot of rehearsal, a lot of sitting, eyes glued to the mission, and the music. It’s just great, a great time.” Since this is his last year, Radcliffe said he wants to soak up the experience and enjoy it, especially since his future doesn’t currently hold a career in music. It’s because of this that he’s looking deeper into what the instructors are telling them to do with the music, how to feel, and take that out of the context of music and apply it to his life. The song they are currently working on features the line “I give thee back the life I owe,” which holds deep meaning for Ian. “I’m a Christian, I’m religious, and this song is religious. So, to me, I’ve connected it to God and Jesus and all that Jesus has given us.And so giving back, I give thee back the life, so it’s not just about the music, it’s about living, and it’s about how we can apply these certain things to our life,” he said. Even though he plans to study architecture at the University of Arkansas, Radcliffe said he’ll never be able to separate music from his life. He said that it’s a real struggle that every artist faces, whether to pursue it as a career or a hobby. The way Radcliffe sees it, he hopes to secure a career that will give him the freedom to enjoy his hobby.And he’ll always be looking for opportunities to share his gifts. “Whether it be playing piano at a church, whether it be, you know, being in a band somewhere. I definitely want to be a part of something. I’m just not pursuing it as a career,” he said. “I will never ever be able to let art go.”