Marching Hilltoppers welcome Freshman, Kyle Turley, to West Liberty this fall…

Turley plays the clarinet in West Liberty’s Marching Hilltopper band. He has been playing the clarinet since 5th grade and has always been interested in marching bands and music.

Turley was drawn to the music industry from a young age. He said “I’ve always had some musical influence between my dad and my great uncle. When the marching band came down to the elementary school, I’d always get so excited and even at football games I’d always be towards the band.”

Turley is majoring in instrumental music education and picked this because of the musical influence in his life along with the inspiration from family and teachers. After graduating Turley would like to be a middle or high school band director. He would prefer to stay local and teach somewhere in the Ohio Valley.

Turley continues to see himself staying in music for the foreseeable future even with the difficulty of the music major.

He says, “Some of the classes can be difficult, which has led to people either dropping out or switching majors, and I’ve heard of those stories, but I don’t plan on it affecting me. I won’t let it. It’s what I want to do with the rest of my life and music will be a part of me forever.”

On average Turley practices, about ten hours a week but is working with his schedule to improve this time. Turley says that the most difficult thing about his major is the singing process. He was never in a choir in high school but finds most of the rest of the work in his major to be relatively easy compared to how difficult he thought it would be.

Turley also shared some of his awards and accomplishments in his musical career so far. He has received the Patrick S. Gilmore award along with participating in the high school Solo and Ensemble contest and receiving excellent and superior ratings. Turley has also participated in the OMEA District IX Honor Band as 2nd chair clarinet and has also been 2nd chair clarinet for the West Liberty University Tri-State Honor’s Festival.

Turley chose to come to attend West Liberty for multiple reasons. Mostly because it’s local but also because he fell in love with the campus on his first visit and appreciated the small class sizes.

When asked, two of Turley’s friends described him as a hard worker but also as a very caring and very bubbly person. He was also described as a gentleman and energetic.