This is a song I composed in honor of a Carthage graduate named Laura Kaeppler- who also happens to be a former Miss America! Towards the end of her time as Miss America, she returned to Kenosha to receive a special Kenoshan-of-the-year Award – and the organizers of the event were anxious for Carthage to somehow be represented in the proceedings. I wrote this song for the event and sang it to her with two of my Carthage voice students, Mike Anderle and Nick Huff. (It was summer, so it wasn’t possible to have any of Carthage’s ensembles participate.) The song is about how being “beautiful” is much more important than being “pretty.” “Pretty” is something on the surface and entirely transitory- while “Beautiful” is about something much more profound and meaningful- as much about what the person is on the inside as they are on the surface. The performance you’re hearing is from my faculty voice recital the following fall. (The photo, however, is from the event where the three of us sang this song for Laura herself.)
