[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Welcome to the Towson University College of Fine Arts and Communication's What's Your Story podcast. In today's story, we hear from Nerissa Paglinauan, program manager at the Asian Arts and Culture Center. She shares with us how singing helped her find her voice. 

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NERISSA PAGLINAUAN: People who know me know that I've been a choral singer for as long as I can remember. It's now, thinking about it, probably 30 years. I've been very fortunate to be a member of the Baltimore Choral Art Society-- in my 13th season now. 

But I wasn't always a confident singer or speaker for that matter. I started off growing up as a very quiet and shy child. I never wanted to raise my hand in school. 

Teachers would always try to prod me and know that I probably had something to say, but I was still too nervous, or shy, or worried about saying something wrong or incorrect. So I never liked to talk in class. I was too shy. But that changed when I discovered my voice and music. 

Music has always been a part of my life. I have an older sister, seven years older than me, who began piano lessons at age five. So I don't remember a moment when I didn't hear the piano playing. And I just assumed that, yes, because my sister's doing that, I'm going to do that too. So I too began piano at the age of five and discovered my love of music. 

And from my love of music, I also discovered my love of singing and specifically singing in harmony. One of my earliest memories aside from learning the round of "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat--" I remember my sister coming home one day and saying, hey, I want you to sing this with me. And since she was older, she listened to cool music. And at that time, her favorite band was U2. 

So my first experience of learning a harmony was U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Of course as a seven-year-old, I didn't know what I was singing about. But I thought those two lines of harmony just sounded really cool together. I mean how can you be singing a line completely different from someone else and have them come together and just make magic that you can only do with two voices? 

So when the opportunity arose to be able to sing in a choir outside of what we did in school, I jumped at it. That's how I started in middle school my love of singing choral music. And it's been a part of my life every Monday night of going to rehearsal, singing with other people that can be completely different from you aside from having this wonderful gift of music in common. 

So through choral singing, I really found my voice. And I used to be nervous before performances even before having to sing any solos. As I was when I was a child, I was worried about making a mistake. 

But, eventually, I got to understand that people, who are there listening to you, they don't want you to fail. They're there to support you. They're there to experience the music with you. And I was able to let go of my fear, and just sing out, and share my music, and share my voice. 

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