President's Message
President's Message - April 2026
The Beauty Inherent in Music
What is beautiful to God ought to be beautiful to Man.
Last year, I purchased an Oura Ring. I think that I fell victim to the advertising campaign that seemed to follow me everywhere I went. Worn almost 24 hours a day on my middle finger, it tells me how many steps I’ve walked, if something is stressing my body, and tracks my “sleep health”. The daily sleep tracker is what gets me. I learned what I already know and what my calendar betrays: I don’t sleep a lot. I place part of the blame on my cat, but I’ll save that for another day.
To say that the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity would be an understatement. Never content to sit idly, watching from the sidelines as others show up, the days sometimes seem a blur with reading, writing, and showing up to anything and everything that is of importance to me. But the highlight of recent weeks took place on Friday, March 20th.
March 20th was the evening of the John Adams Academies Foundation Gala and the honoring of Congressman Kevin Kiley as Servant Leader of the Year. Kiley delivered the best speech I’ve heard him give on our Founding Fathers and servant leadership.
But it was the music of the evening that captured me.
Hyperion Knight reminded everyone in the room that in the midst of all the division and stresses of life, there is truth, beauty, and good that we can wrap ourselves in. He gave that to us in the moments of mingling with friends as he played the piano. He delivered it fully with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Hyperion Knight is a world-renowned piano virtuoso and storyteller. I had the honor and privilege of spending some time with him this past week in between the performances that he graciously gave to the scholars of all three John Adams campuses. To hear him weave the lives of great composers with the music they created into a tapestry filled with threads of joy and sorrow, triumph and heartbreak, made me see the whole of it in a new light. Each is unique. Every piece has a history. Much of it has a story. It never lies. It tells you to slow down to take the time to really listen because everything else can wait for just a little while.
What happens when you stop to listen?
“When you really begin to listen, you start to see the beauty in the structure of music. Some may say that nothing is objectively beautiful or even objectively true. However, both truth and beauty are transcendentals; they do not rely on anything but their existence to be real and good.
Embedded in the complex rhythms and structured melodies of music there is beauty regardless of whether or not anyone is present to hear it. In the beauty of music, its mathematical perfection, one is pointed to look towards God. Man’s appreciation of music orients his views higher than the beasts and cattle which are stuck prone, grazing from the ground.” — Luca Pagnone
When I found myself wiping away tears as I listened to Hyperion tell the story of Beethoven and his struggles with deafness, I realized how much a long familiar piece struck me differently. No longer a vague story passed down with the question “Did you know?”, Beethoven became more than just music. He was a man who retreated from public life into silence. He entered the halls where his name was carved as one of the great stories of humanity.
To find yourself immersed in this melody of storytelling causes your heart to yearn for long-gone days when manners and care were fashionable, and when virtue and culture meant something. There is a spark of inspiration that has ignited and it will take conscious effort to keep it from fading away.
To spend time with Hyperion Knight is to bear witness to a kind and gracious man with a love of history, America, and who will occasionally season his conversation with trivia. He is a gentleman with a ready smile and a twinkle in his eye; humble, encouraging, and engaging, he is generous with his time.
My son has been an admirer of his since the day he was first introduced to him in his sophomore year of high school. Upon meeting, what Luca never expected was a conversation and an invitation to play music for Hyperion Knight. They got to know each other over Liebestraum as Hyperion gave advice, mentorship, and friendship to a young man who has loved the piano ever since he could reach the keys.
All this to say:
When you step away from the chaos and responsibilities of life, you will discover that comfort is often waiting in the stories you hold close to your heart, the music you love, or the quiet path you choose to walk. But there is so much more to explore than what you already know.
I would encourage you to carve out time to not only read the classics but listen to them as well. Not when you think you can, because without intention, it is relegated to merely a thought. Your world, your heart, and your mind will be greater for it.
With that, I am off to listen to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. A certain someone tells me it is the greatest music ever written and I may have to agree.
If you would like to get to know Hyperion Knight and learn from him, you can take his free online course - beginning with The History of Classical Music: Pythagoras through Beethoven - through Hillsdale College.