A red-haired girl clenches her teeth on the reed and blows on the clarinet, squeaking like a shrill bird’s chirp. Tears flow. She puts her clarinet on the music stand in the high school practice room ...

On a whim, I picked the clarinet at the school music fair in fourth grade, and for the next eight years, I was a part of my school’s band programs. In middle school, I stayed in band class so I wasn’t ...