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Teen of the Week: Forshey sees the value in music and what it does for people

By Brett Dunlap 5 min read

PARKERSBURG - Pursuing a career in music education, Macie Forshey is learning how to show people the ways music can bring out the best in themselves.

Forshey, 17, is a senior at Parkersburg South High School and is involved in girls' basketball and many aspects of choral music while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average over her high school career.

"I have been playing basketball since I was in kindergarten," she said. "I have always done it."

A member of South's varsity girls basketball team, she also played in a traveling league over the summer on a team called the 740 Thunder that competed in tournaments in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Columbus and elsewhere.

"You play in front of college coaches," Forshey said. "It is a summer league, and you do big tournaments."

She plays guard, sometimes a point guard and sometimes a shooting guard.

"I like the competition part of it," she said. "I like the friends I made through it and through building the team."

It was actually basketball that led to a love of singing. Forshey started in choir in the eighth grade when she got a concussion from playing basketball and had to take some time off to recover.

"So I started singing," she said.

Over her basketball career, she has had four concussions.

"I would just collide with girls a lot," Forshey said with a chuckle. "I am shorter, and I got hit a lot."

She has been involved in choir for five years.

"I have always had an interest in doing something musical," Forshey said. "It just sparked my interest in it when I had that down time.

"I decided that is what I like to do. I have really enjoyed it."

She is in South's Madrigal Singers, the Chamber Ensemble, the Concert Choir, the Treble A Cappella Group and the Mixed SATB A Cappella Group.

"I really like the people I get to be around," she said. "I think it is fun to challenge myself."

Forshey was recently part of the Governor's School For The Arts, offered through the West Virginia Department of Education. She was selected as a vocalist and went through a three-week program at West Virginia West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, learning different aspects of singing and performance.

"You build on things you have done," Forshey said. "I learned a lot about vocal stuff through the professor there.

"It is definitely complex at times, and I like working and getting better at it."

One piece that she learned and liked to sing there was "Sei Nei Sospiri" by Francois Joseph Fetis.

"I had to learn it on my own through a program that taught you to be more independent with music," she said. "I felt like I accomplished something learning that on my own."

She also auditioned and was accepted to the Southern Region American Choral Directors Association choir program. It is made up of singers from a number of eastern states with the conference held in Memphis, Tenn., last year.

"I competed against people from all over the eastern United States and made it," Forshey said.

She had spent time doing a number of drama productions in high school including playing Tanya in "Mamma Mia" and Margot in "Legally Blonde," as well as parts in "Beetlejuice: The Musical" and being part of the ensemble in some one-act plays.

Due to the demands of basketball, additional classwork in her senior year and a part-time job at the Ice Cream Post in Mineral Wells, she is stepping back from drama productions this year.

After high school, Forshey is planning to go to college to study music education. She has not picked a school yet, but is looking at West Virginia Wesleyan College, West Virginia University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Georgia, Coastal Carolina University and other places.

She has really enjoyed being involved in music programs and has been taking on more leadership roles in choirs.

"I am getting the experience of working with students at school on music," she said. "I have grown to really want to teach music and share my passion with others.

"I would really like to be a choir director."

In helping with that goal, she is learning to play the guitar and the piano.

Forshey said she has met many friends through choir.

"We are able to share our lives," she said. "It is really beautiful to see all these different stories united through music."

She expects balancing everything she is involved in now to help her reach her goal and handle challenges with strength.

"It will make me a good teacher in being able to share my experiences with my students and help them understand what is going on in their own lives," Forshey said. "I can share how music can be an outlet for stress and more."

Being involved in music has taught her how to work with people and develop her social skills to address problems as they come up.

"I think that can be applied in the classroom," Forshey said.

Arts education really helps people develop a sense of themselves, she said.

"It is where a lot of kids go to express themselves and make a lot of friends," Forshey said. "It is definitely needed in the community.

"There are a lot of kids who don't do anything else. They don't look forward to it a lot (in school) but they do look forward to singing or playing instruments. It is an escape to be able to make music. It feels great when you accomplish something. I think any student in music would say that."

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com.

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