Adelia Ladson
MOULTRIE — When high school senior Logan Padilla says he’s busy – he’s seriously busy.
Padilla is the drum major for the Colquitt County High School 50th Regiment Band, plays trumpet in the Jazz and Symphonic bands, and sings in the Senior Men’s Choir. He is also a part of the high school drama club and is participating in the One-Act Play Competition piece. Not to mention, participating in community theater as a member of Arts Center Theatre at the Colquitt County Arts Center, where he directed his own show last January. Then, there are his duties for 4-H, which include project chairman and member of the Colquitt County 4-H Council.
However, he seems to take it all in stride and said he enjoys being a part of each organization.
“I’ve just had fun with all of this,” he said.
He said he gives his all to everything that he does.
“People say when you’re involved with so much, you can’t put 100 percent of yourself into everything. But I don’t think that’s true,” he said.
Padilla was born and raised in Colquitt County, living most of his life out in the county. He said when he was younger he sang with his church choir at Liberty Hill and that was how he became interested in music.
“I guess that’s kind of where it started,” he said.
Later, in elementary school, his teacher, Mrs. Cook, had an electric keyboard in her classroom and, he said, he loved the different sounds it made. So, he asked for one for Christmas and got it.
“I played with the sounds for a few days,” he said.
Then, he said laughing, he lost interest but he did start playing it later on. He learned to play a few songs “by ear” and said he only took a couple of months of formal training in piano. So, he doesn’t consider himself that great of a pianist, he said.
In middle school, he decided to take band classes and had to try out different instruments to see what he was suited to play. He said he tried percussion first.
“Mr. [Greg] Daniels said let’s try something else,” he said chuckling.
He then tried the saxophone but couldn’t get any sound out of it. He was just about to give up when Daniels told him to try the trumpet.
“I’ve been playing ever since. … I’m really glad I did decide to go with the trumpet,” he said.
Padilla has a passion for music that shows when he speaks about it.
“Anybody can blow into a trumpet or hit a drum but that doesn’t make them a musician,” he said.
He said when a person starts “feeling the music” rather than just playing what’s there, that’s when they become a musician. He said he first “became a musician” when he attended a band clinic and the clinician introduced him to the concept of feeling the music.
He said she told them, “As a musician, a piece of sheet music is like a canvas and your job is to color the music and shape it like an artist.”
He said he started playing the music with feeling for the first time at a concert at the band clinic and, at that point, the music was overwhelming to him.
“That’s the first time I think I really felt the music,” he said. “… Music, for me, is the equivalent of eating and sleeping,” he said.
He said band was one of the things he was most glad that he got involved with. He said he has met some of his closest friends in band and he feels it’s like a family. He jokingly said that over the last four years, he has probably spent more time with them than his mom and dad. Participating in band has taught him “pride, honor and dedication,” he said quoting the 50th Regiment’s motto.
“I’m extremely proud to be a drum major with the caliber of performers we have,” he said.
He said he believed the show they are performing this year is one of the most creative they’ve done and he’s proud of the band’s performance.
Padilla said if he had to sum up the entire experience in one word, it would be — “lasting.” He said he knows the qualities he learned — pride, honor and dedication — were qualities he could take through life. He also said he felt it was coming to an end too soon and he would “love to go back and do it all over again.”
“Out of all the things, I’ve done 4-H the longest,” he said.
Padilla said he has been involved with 4-H since he was in fifth grade, where he was project chairman. He shook his head and laughed as he realized the full circle he had come by being project chairman his senior year.
He said he has participated in the performing arts category every year at 4-H. He said he would have participated in every performing arts category until they added dance last year.
“That pretty much threw me out of the running for participating in every category,” he said with dry humor.
Padilla said a close second with band is his love of theater. He said, since he was a little boy, he had always wanted to be a film or television actor. He actually auditioned for a scouting company in Albany when he was in elementary age and made the “callbacks” to Atlanta. Nickelodeon and Disney were some of the agencies at the callbacks and they asked to speak with him. He said he had fallen asleep during the wait for the callbacks and when he woke up he was rather cranky.
“I would not talk to the people when I got there. … I wonder, now, if that could have been my chance to get into film and television,” he said shaking his head.
He quickly followed up with, “Whatever God has planned is what will happen. If I’m meant to be an actor, I will be. If I’m meant to be a music teacher, I will.”
He has also attended John Casablancas Modeling and Career Center in Atlanta, which is a national modeling and acting school. While there, he focused on acting for film and television. However, he said, when he did his first full-length show, “Oliver!” with ACT at the Colquitt County Arts Center, his eyes were opened to a new aspect of acting — stage acting. He said he thoroughly enjoyed it and hasn’t stopped since. He said there was nothing like a live audience.
“I think I’ve had my share of mishaps on stage,” he said laughing.
Including “Oliver!” he has performed in four shows with ACT and was stage manager for two shows. Plus, he has also performed in the annual Madrigal Dinner, which is presented by the group each year.
In January of this year, he also directed his own student show, “Puzzle Pieces.” This was a project he submitted to the board of directors of ACT, designating the proceeds to go to the high school’s Pressure Proof Pack. It was approved and sponsored by the theater organization and Padilla was able to raise $130 for the peer-based support group.
“I felt it was a good cause. I feel that Pressure Proof Pack is a great organization and giving money to them gave me the opportunity to help my peers,” he said.
He said being involved in theater has helped him as drum major for the 50th Regiment. As drum major, he said, he performs for the band and they perform for the audience; it’s his job to evoke the band’s emotion so they would evoke the emotion from the audience.
In October, Padilla auditioned for colleges at the Georgia Theatre Conference and was called back by all but three of the colleges represented.
“It was a fun experience preparing for it,” he said.
However, he said that was the most nervous he has ever been, as far as acting, in his life.
“It was a big opportunity. I didn’t want to mess it up,” he said.
The most important callback he received, though, was from Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah, he said. He wants to attend this college and they accepted him, on the spot, into their theater program. He said he will be applying for the school and is confident he will be accepted because of his grades and SAT scores. He wants to double-major in theater and music education.
He said his dream would be to be a working actor but he said he is realistic about his chances. That is why he is also majoring in music education.
“I would rather work toward something I like than work on something I hate. … I think life is too short and I need another three or four hundred years to do everything I want,” he said laughing.
He said he would like to direct a high school band because he has enjoyed his own career in the marching band. He said someone told him, once, that everybody has a “life clock” and everybody’s “life clock” is set at a different time.
“So you’ve got to go ahead and what you want to do in life. When it runs out, would you rather die rich or happy?” he said matter-of-factly.
He said he does find it bittersweet that he’s moving on and going to “be out on his own.” He said it really struck him last Saturday during his last band competition.
“It was a moment. … I tried to soak it all in. I guess I’ve had a pretty good run in school,” he said.
He said he wishes things would not go so quickly. He also realizes what the adults meant when they told him to “enjoy life.”
He said the adults that he has worked with in the different organizations he’s been involved with have been very helpful and he’s learned a lot from them. He mentioned his band instructors, Ted and Jennifer Phillips; ACT members, Larry Sims, Connie Fritz, and Mary Norman; and Zona Medley, county extension agent/4-H program assistant.
He said his biggest influence has been his parents, his grandmother and his sister. They have played a major role in his life, he said.
“They have supported me in anything I’ve wanted to do. … I really appreciate that,” he said.
He said his family has pushed him and stood behind him throughout his life. At one point, when he thought about quitting the band, his parents encouraged him to stay in it. He said they are his biggest heroes and role models.
“Pleasing them is a bigger reward than pleasing anyone else,” he said.
He feels that at the end of this year he is just turning a page in his book and taking his first step into the “real world.” He laughed and said that after college he would be taking a leap into the “real world.” He wants to live his life, he said, so that he doesn’t have any regrets.
“It’s not about leaving a legacy, it’s about enjoying your time while you’re here,” he said.
