Senior Jared Warner is known to many at Clarke Central as the academic intellect, standing at the second place ranking in his class. But since he was 11, Warner has also carried an artistic passion for the viola. “Above all it’s enjoyable,” Warner said.
Update: The ODYSSEY Media Group will provide viewers with weekly stylized profiles that center on people in the Athens community telling their own stories.
By JOHANNA HALL – Print Sports Editor
Senior Jared Warner is commonly known at Clarke Central for his class ranking, but aside from his academic attributes, he is a musical artist.
Most know senior Jared Warner as the straight-A student who stands at the second place ranking in his class.
And they would be right–he is a hard worker who enjoys academic activities such as Mock Trial and Academic Team.
But when he picks up the bow to his viola, he plays the tunes of songs he has heard throughout his life, perfected in the notes of the four strings at his fingertips.
“There’s something incredible about being able to play awesome music that you’ve heard for years,” he said.
When he sits in his chair, marked for the principal of the violas at Athens Youth Symphony, he isn’t just the well-rounded student in his senior class; he’s an artist, who recreates music with the sing-song notes of his instrument.
“It’s a release from everything else. It’s very different, it’s very soothing, it’s very calm,” he said.
Not only is it an escape from his academic life, but it is also a submergence into something true, something real. The pre-adult world can seem very formulaic, intentional and different from what lays beyond high school and college with structured schedules and classrooms dynamics that don’t quite model those of the “real world.”
But for Warner, there is nothing fabricated about music. The difficulty of hitting the right note at the exact right moment, and doing this over and over in sequences of hundreds of notes is something that cannot be contrived.
“(Playing the music is) a reflection of the real world in that it has ups and downs and crescendos and decrescendos,” Warner said.
Warner uses his love for viola as a way to express himself beyond the classroom. The instrument is more than a part of his daily academic routine; it is a separate, individualized and creative outlet.
“(When you play viola,) you are in a way able to step away from everything else that you do,” Warner said.
Jared Warner is known to many for his academic drive, but it is also his passion for music that defines who he is.
