Tiger Tuesday: a Q&A with Leroy Hyson '19
Meet Leroy Hyson, a music major from Gaithersburg, Maryland, who is a cofounder of the Towson Trills, a TU acapella group that reached the finals of the 2017 ICCA competition.
By Megan Bradshaw on July 17, 2017
Leroy Hyson, ’19, music major
College of Fine Arts and Communication
Tell me about where you’re from.
I’m from Gaithersburg, Maryland. There was always something around me [to do]. The neighborhoods are super-nice. The cost of living is super-high, but the schools are nice. All my family and friends are there. What did I do with my friends? Music, music, music. I’m a singer-songwriter, and I do worship at my church as well. I was in chorus since sixth grade. Other than that, go to the movies. I like comedy and action movies, some dramas.
Tell me about your family.
I have three sisters -- one blood sister and two stepsisters -- along with my stepmom and my dad. I’m the youngest. My dad is a teacher. My stepmom used to be an administrator at my church. One sister is a daycare teacher, another works at a church, and another works at Giant. My dad teaches sixth grade science.
What made you choose Towson University?
Actually, everything. No one really told me about Towson. I just started searching schools with music programs and looking at different videos and reviews, I really loved it. I visited it about four times before coming here just because I loved it. Everyone was super-nice. Even my dad was like, ‘Leroy, you have to come here.’ I’ve never been to a campus where people were so nice. There were no negative feelings. I love the buildings; I love the Center for the Arts. I love the atmosphere; I love the area. It’s not too much of a city feel but it has enough that I can go out and have fun.
What do you do in your free time?
Ha, free time. What’s that? I’m part of the newest acapella group here on campus—the Towson Trills—which I started in my freshman year. We’re actually getting ready for a semifinal competition. I write music. I’m also an RA for Barton House. That takes up a lot of free time as well.
Why did you want to be an RA?
I’ve always liked being a leader and having an effect on things. Being an RA was the perfect way to do that while also getting free room and board and free meals. That’s a great thing. My RA freshman year was great, so I applied and got the job.
What is your favorite class or professor?
My favorite teacher was from my TSTEM class, Lisa Twist. She was an amazing teacher. She really knows how to teach in a really fun way but also getting information out. There was never a day in class when I was like, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ It was always super-energetic and super-fun. She loves her job and she’s in school now. She understands what was to be a student. She’s actually the adviser for my acapella group. My favorite class is the special topics of recording class I’m taking right now. I’m learning how to do different software and hardware for recording.
What is your favorite thing about TU?
A friend walks into PAWS where the interview is taking place and interrupts to say hi. Probably things like that. Laughs. Seeing people all the time, wherever I’m going there’s always someone to say hi to. It is a big campus, but it seems really small.
What kind of music do you write? What’s your inspiration?
That’s such a hard question. I’ve started calling it pop with an influence of soul. If John Legend and Ed Sheeran wrote a song together. I’ve always making music, producing music, composing music. My dad is also a children’s music writer, he has a cd and he does parties and events. I’ve been around music my entire life. On his album you hear a baby singing and that’s me. Any way that I share anything in my life is through music.
What are your plans for the future?
I want to move to California—away from the cold—and open up a fine arts academy for middle school and high school. It would be more of an afterschool because education and the arts aren’t going to be funded as much especially on the West Coast. Where there are no chorus or art classes, [the students] are going to need somewhere to go. I want to have that facility where they can have, say, guitar lessons, piano lessons or voice lessons, but once they finish all their work, they go work on their craft. They work on their songs, they work their productions, they work on their films, they work on their art. It’s an initiative for kids to spend their time productively and bring value to their lives. If you can spend hours after you do your work, on a film that you can say, ‘This is mine. This is my creation,’ I feel like that’s so much more valuable than anything. I want to raise money to put arts back into schools. That’s my goal—to have different Creations Academies all over the country.
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