Central Magnet School seniors named to All-National Honors Choir

Leah Pruter (left) and Isabella Kinard (second from left) rehearse with their class and chorale director, Dr. Kimberly Saxon (right), at Central Magnet School. The two seniors will perform with the All-National Honors Choir on Saturday, Nov. 5 in National Harbor, Md.SUBMITTED

Central Magnet School seniors Isabella Kinard and Leah Pruter have earned the opportunity of a lifetime for high school choir students.

The two 17-year-olds were named to the National Association of Music Education All-National Honors Choir and will perform alongside their peers on Saturday, Nov. 5 in National Harbor, Md. They are two of only seven students from Tennessee to earn the honor.

The All-National Honors Choir is open only to high school seniors who were named to their All-State Choir the previous year, according to Dr. Kimberly Saxon, choral director at CMS.

Isabella grew up around music, singing with her sisters at churches from a young age. She credits her grandmother, the late songwriter Kyla Rowland, as her biggest musical influence.

She first began singing in the school choir when she was in fourth grade. She then participated in the Nashville Children’s Choir from fifth through eighth grades.

Isabella began learning piano in first grade and went on to play the drums and viola. She has played the viola at Carnegie Hall and in Vienna, Austria. She has also participated in the Governor’s School for the Arts at Middle Tennessee State University.

“Music honestly just helps me express emotions in ways that words can’t,” Isabella said. “It’s been the main way that I’ve formed relationships in my life.”

Isabella, a soprano, has been named to the Tennessee Mid-State Choir for the past three years and to the All-State Choir for the past two years.

Leah didn’t get involved in choir until later in her adolescence, but the accolades have accumulated quickly.

The alto singer joined the CMS Choir as a freshman. She went on to earn a spot in the Mid-State Choir the next three years and has been named to the All-State Choir for the past three years.

“I had always been interested in the choir program, but I had never done it in middle school, and I was just very curious, so I decided to do it here with Dr. Saxon and women’s chorale, and I just fell in love with it,” Leah said. “I’ve never loved any activity like I’ve loved choir, so I just never stopped.”

She credits her chorale director as her greatest musical influence, citing Saxon’s encouragement as key in cultivating her musical talent.

“It’s not like I grew up in a very musical family,” Leah said. “She just kind of held our hands along every step of the way. She’s an incredible leader and teacher, and so she’s definitely been a really big inspiration for me.”

Saxon has been choral director at CMS since 2019, when the two singers were freshmen. The fact that Isabella and Leah will be a part of the first graduating class to have spent all four high school years in her program is not lost on Saxon, who said she will “ugly cry” at their graduation.

“We have formed such a close bond,” Saxon said. “In addition to just music class, really this whole class, but these two in particular, it’s almost like family. They’re kind of like my adopted daughters.”

Isabella said she plans to study music in college, with a focus on music composition/arrangement and songwriting. She said she’s considering Belmont University and Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Leah said she plans to pursue a degree in speech pathology, a career path that she said was influenced by her love of choir with its emphasis on the formation of words and sounds.

Though she doesn’t plan to pursue music professionally, she said she intends to be a part of a campus choir wherever she goes. She said she’s considering six schools, with Purdue University at the top of the list.