By Maggie FitzRoy
mail@floridanewsline.com
He just turned 18 in April, but Casey Carroll already knows what he wants to do with his life and he’s off to a great start. Born into a musical family, he became involved in musical theater at a young age, plays the piano, and during his high school years at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts began composing original musical compositions. This fall the young Ponte Vedra Beach resident heads to Boston to attend Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music on a scholarship, where he will major in musical composition at Boston Conservatory while minoring in film music at Berklee. He has won awards in theater and music composition, and in April was the state of Florida High School winner in the National PTSA Reflections competition for his original composition, “Lost to Time.”
Q: What type of music do you compose?
A: Mostly neo-classical, which is inspired from classical music while putting it into a new light. “Lost to Time” is a solo piano piece.
Q: What did you major in at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts?
A: I majored in musical theater. Artistically, I’ve had two parts in my life. One half has always been theater and performance. The other half is musical composition. I hope to pursue a career in film music, to write the music for movies.
Q: Was it difficult to get accepted into Boston Conservatory?
A: It’s competitive. In the whole department they have about 35 students. They only accept about a dozen a year. The music composition program is one of the best in the country and now I’ll have access to the faculty at Boston Conservatory and Berklee.
Q: Where did you go to school prior to Douglas Anderson?
A: I’ve lived my whole life in Ponte Vedra Beach. I went to Ponte Vedra Palm Valley Elementary School and then Landrum Middle School. Getting into D.A. was competitive. When I was accepted my freshman year, about 120 students auditioned and 20 were accepted.
Q: When was your first time on the stage?
A: I was in second or third grade and it was in the musical “Peter Pan” at Christ Episcopal Church, where I started singing in the Christ Church Children’s Choir when I was in kindergarten.
Q: Tell us about your musical family.
A: My mom, Karyn, and my dad, Kevin, met at Indiana University where my mom majored in opera performance and my dad was part of an acapella group called “Straight No Chaser.” I loved performing with my mom at first and then my dad and then my younger brother, Keegan. It’s fun to perform together as a family — not a lot of people have that. It’s pretty special.
Q: How did you branch out into writing musical composition?
A: Last year at Douglas Anderson was when my two worlds blended. I was approached by a teacher and asked to compose the music for one of the plays there. I wrote a film score that was background music for “The Crucible.” That ended up being a big success; it was received really well by the audience. So, I was asked to write two more scores for two plays this year, “Constellations” by playwright Nick Payne and “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare. I personally won an All-Star Performance Award for my composition for “Constellations.”
Q: Beyond your busy musical world, do you play any sports?
A: I play golf. It’s nice to get into nature and have four hours to disconnect. But I haven’t had a lot of time to play anymore. I sing in the Christ Church Chancel Choir and the Common Ground Choir, and I take private voice lessons with Jen Schlechte. Through her in February I competed in the National Association of Teachers of Singing vocal competition at Jacksonville University, where I placed first in my upper high school category. This spring at D.A., I had a lead role in the musical “Next to Normal” and was granted an Applause Award nomination for Outstanding Actor and Outstanding Lead Character.
Q: How excited are you about your future?
A: Very. It’s always been my dream to go to Berklee, so with Boston Conservatory, I’ll have the best of both schools.
Photo courtesy Maggie FitzRoy
Casey Carroll
