Ryan Farr: Fueling the Passions of the Next Generation of Musical Creatives
Written by Nneoma Agbaghara
Known for his energetic personality and uplifting spirit, Ryan Farr has touched the hearts of countless young creatives and continues to inspire audio engineers.
This multi-talented musician has gone from drum sets, to church sound systems, to teaching, over the course of his life, with still so much ambition and drive to gain further knowledge. Ryan Farr currently teaches at Sterling High School, where he started the first-ever audio engineering club, and has been head choir director for over 3 years. While working in HISD, he has received several awards, including teacher of the year and a three-time recipient of the "Mr. Holland’s Opus" grant. Ryan has also performed with various off-Broadway musicals, such as “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and “Rent,” playing the drum set and percussion. Outside of the school district, Ryan has won numerous awards, including the “Hometown Heroes” award from the Mayor of Fairmont for excellence, leadership, and public impact as a community music educator.
He has been extremely grateful for the opportunity to teach and the blessings that came with his time as an educator. Ryan has never stopped pursuing music, for it is his passion in every shape and form.
Where It All Started
Rhythm ran in the family. His love for drums started at a very young age when Ryan would visit his grandma’s house, and his dad would always play. The seed was planted and from then on, it kept growing and growing. In 6th grade, his mom bought him his first drum set, and the rest was history!
“I always wanted to be an artist.”
Middle school was when Ryan really became a band kid, and proud! He has been playing in band for 26 years and is currently the assistant band director at Sterling High School, the “...baddest band on the land!”. Ryan's Sterling High's Raiders got straight 1's 2 years in a row in marching UIL for the first time ever, and advanced to area competition. The talent doesn’t stop there; Ryan is also head choir director at Sterling, leading his students to be the first in 20+ years to compete as a full choir. That is no small feat.
However, teaching did not come easily to Ryan. His first year as a choir director was definitely a challenge: “I didn’t know anything about choir. I had to use every resource that I could get…” Ryan was never the type to be afraid of a challenge, so he put in the work and showed up to Sterling High every day eager to grow; “You have to be open and willing to be taught and willing to learn.”
Leading by Learning
While teaching at Sterling High, Ryan found himself wanting to further pursue his own education and to immerse himself in the audio engineering side of music production. “I was like, I wanna take this seriously now”. He started researching schools and found Avant Media Institute. Ryan had no doubt in his mind that AMI was his next step. He had one objective: to learn as much as possible.
Ryan on his time at Avant:
“I think it definitely changed how I listen and see things.”
Ryan had always been an artist, and music production was a long-time interest of his. He started off like most young artists do, working on small projects in college using easily accessible programs such as FL Studio. In hindsight, he may not be proud of those projects, but that spark of interest got him to where he is today.
The first time Ryan felt as though he’d found his calling was during AMI’s Jingle Contest. The Jingle Contest was an activity meant to give students a fun chance to create some sort of anthem or ‘jingle’ either for Avant, or themselves. Ryan’s jingle is still used at Avant in promotional content for the school and even at graduations!
“Doing the jingle contest made me realize like, Ok…I might have something here.”
To this day his instructors still praise his project from the jingle contest, and claim that it was an extremely impressive track for someone who only used to record and engineer as a pastime in his early college days. From the jump, Ryan has always been a “polished recording artist” regardless of how much experience he had in the field. However, that pivot from beginner to pro did not come naturally; it was cultivated through lots of late nights and hard work.
Balancing being a student, being a teacher, and on top of all that- a new father- was no easy feat...
“Having to go do [band] practice ‘til maybe 5 pm and then shoot across town in traffic to get here [Avant] on time honestly just felt like a regular day because I was already at the school ‘til 8:30 pm anyway. However, when it came to doing the homework…or doing the projects afterwards, that’s where I had to lock in…Some days I would be working at school in between my planning periods.”
Ryan set an incredible example of hard work and determination for his students at Sterling. Even though he already secured a solid teaching career, he wanted to know more about his field, and he wanted to create new opportunities for himself. For young aspiring creatives, that is a true role model.
Something that Ryan learned to carry into his teaching from his time as an AMI student was how to connect with his students. One of the things that Ryan appreciated the most at Avant was that his instructors made him feel like part of a community, which made him realize that personalizing himself to his students was something he needed to do. Listening and leveling with his students was never a priority for Ryan until he had first-hand experience learning from instructors that felt like family.
“Getting to know somebody matters. How you treat them matters. Your ability to understand them matters as well.”
2 years ago, Ryan created an audio engineering club at Sterling High School to give students a chance to explore all aspects of the music industry. The club trains students similarly to how Ryan trained at Avant. Students get the chance to run live shows on their own, giving them the rare opportunity to see what it’s like pursuing an audio engineering career before graduating high school. Ryan Farr’s audio engineering club not only informs students about music production, but inspires young musicians to believe in themselves and gain confidence in their passions. Ryan knew he loved music from a very young age, but there are a lot of young people out there who have no idea what they want to do in life. Creating a space where high school students can explore a career that they most likely never heard of is a strong achievement that will continue to impact many lives at Sterling High School.
Upcoming Projects
When Ryan’s not conducting a choir, he’s in the studio making beats. He’s currently working on dropping an album called “G2G” - “Glory to God”- by the end of this year. 3 tracks on the album have already been released, so be sure to check those out!
The album is going to be centered on “praising God because to me right now, on my journey, that’s all that matters.”
Ryan produces his own music and records other artists while inspiring younger generations of musical creatives. It’s no surprise that Ryan is continuing to gain success as he gets more seasoned in the audio engineering world. Where he is today is a testament to what complete passion and desire to learn about the thing you love can get you in life. To other young fire-starters like Ryan, here’s his advice
“Keep going. Don’t stop doing what you’re doing. Be open to criticism and be open to change.”
For the full podcast episode with Ryan and our 301 Instructor Mark Drew, visit our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@avantmediainstitute
Comments