Buffalo Bills safety Bryan Scott shared his gift of music and played the piano with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on November 9th when he attended two Educational Concerts at Kleinhan's Music Hall in front of 5,000 Buffalo Public School students.
Scott was introduced on stage, opened the shows and talked to the children about his love for music and how he became involved with music. He played a brief two-minute melody of songs on the piano and led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to the BPO as they are celebrating their 75th Anniversary this year.
Scott's musical path began at an early age.
"I learned about music at a young age. I pulled out the pots and pans when I started to crawl and just beat on them to make noise," said Scott. "My parents finally got me a drum set in the 5th grade and from there I joined a band, learned the saxophone and the piano. Now, I'm teaching myself the guitar."
Scott's musical talents are truly a unique gift. He doesn't read music and plays everything by ear.
"I took one piano lesson when I was 6 years old," said Scott. "During the lesson I was off in my own world. The piano teacher took my mom aside afterwards, told her to just let me do my own thing and I would be just fine."
As an athlete and a musician, Scott has only had one conflict during his playing days.
"In high school I had to make a decision between a basketball game and a choir concert – I chose the choir concert. The problem was that the original date for the basketball game got cancelled and rescheduled to the same date as my choir concert. I wasn't only singing in the choir. I was also the drummer for a lot of the songs so, if I didn't show up, the choir would've been left hanging. I already committed so I stuck to my word."
The BPO is a group of very talented musicians and the Educational Concerts at Kleinhan's exposes thousands of young Buffalo area students to the world of music. Scott was very interested in being a part of the event and helping expose kids to musical opportunities.
"I think music has definitely made me a well-rounded person and I believe, especially growing up as a child, you should involve yourself in as much as you can to really find what you love," said Scott. "Whether it be music, performing, visual, dance, the more the better. Music is definitely something where if I walk away from the game of football or the game of football walks away from me, then music will always be there."
Scott added, "If I could have made an impression on just one of these kids today and changed their perception on music and the arts, I would be very happy."
