Ben Schneider:  

Life "Life is what happens to you While you're busy making other plans" In high school, I thought within ten years I'd be a nuclear research scientist working on alternative energy sources, raking in the $ from patents, and not seriously pursuing a personal life. At the last moment I applied for a music degree at the UofC, went on to an education degree, and taught K-12 full or part time over the course of seven years. I thought all I wanted to do was be a high school band director. I realized that if I didn't get out of "Cow-Town" I'd be stuck and miserable, so I got out. I completed a Masters degree in conducting performance at the State University of New York (Fredonia). More importantly I married Leanne Villareal in July 2001, a high school friend and the love of my life, and rediscovered the importance of family. We both taught on the faculty at SUNY Fredonia, and most recently relocated to Baltimore for me to begin a doctorate in conducting. I'm studying at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Leanne will apply for her doctorate in voice soon. Founded in 1857, it is the oldest conservatory of music in the United States, and with visits by Peter Tchaikovsky to Leonard Bernstein, lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Igor Stravinsky, it has seen some of history’s most revered talent walk through its doors. The last few years, all I wanted to do is become a college band director, but working with some of the best faculty in the world like Maestros Harlan Parker and Gustav Meier, there are always options. After nine years of college, study is wearing THIN. I ache when I think of the salary I have given up, and the education debt that has piled up. HOWEVER… I am ridiculously happy. :) I will never have to wonder “what if?” because I am finding out. I’ve followed my dreams to the other side of the continent, and...Expand for more