News from The Mahurin Honors College

Braden Cutright Head (he/him/his; WKU/MHC ’24), a Music major from Bowling Green, KY, is a couple of weeks away from walking across the stage to receive his diploma. But what sets Braden apart isn't just his academic prowess or musical talent—it's his unwavering spirit and extraordinary journey as a visually impaired student navigating the world of a university campus and his major.

Braden shared that he’s “always had a passion for music, whether it’s playing piano, percussion, or composing music and it’s how I like to spend my time.”

When he was around 2-3 years of age, he was given a toy keyboard and that gift opened a new world to him, after mastering Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, of course. For Braden, the piano is his primary instrument, and he considers himself a “composer first, a pianist second.” His interest in composition began in 8^th grade when he found an app on his iPad that allowed him to “write, like hear my ideas as I’m writing them, and as I got better, I realized this could be something I really enjoy doing.”

It wasn’t until he was quarantined during the pandemic that he really hit his composition stride and it was thanks to a virtual concert band “where people from all over the world would submit individual parts, which will then be edited together to make final YouTube videos.” He was the recruiter for his virtual band and Braden established contact with band directors, brass bands and the other music aficionados from Africa, who offered him opportunities to write original music for them. These offers initially surprised him, because he “hadn’t had any live performances of my work prior to this”, and at the beginning of last semester, “I felt like I was more known there than in Bowling Green” due to the number and complexity of pieces he had produced.

This intercultural experience influenced his subsequent compositions. For his senior recital, Braden created a sextet, written for piano and strings, based on his collaborative works with African musicians. Although his personal tastes in music lean toward Mozart and Beethoven, he has begun incorporating sounds of Africa, and heavy metal, to bring maturity to his sound. In his spare time, he is in a cover band called Kickback, which he described as “classic rock, with a little bit of soul.”

Braden described his music major as experience as “very demanding, very rewarding, particularly as somebody with a visual impairment.” Because of his impairment, Braden relies on his family, ride-sharing apps, and his music major friends, to help him get to campus so that he can attend his classes and required music experiences. He credited the faculty of the music department and SARC as “super accommodating” for his needs.

In addition to his senior recital composition, Braden is also completing an Honors capstone experience/thesis (CE/T) for his final honors requirement. He wrote a full piano concerto, which he recorded with the WKU Orchestra in November 2023, about “overcoming my disability during a global pandemic, and that I didn’t have any works performed and suddenly out of left field, African percussion comes in representing the connecting I made over there, and the end is basically just a big epic party for how I overcame disability.” Braden played a portion of his concerto at the February 2024 Kentucky Honors Roundtable conference which was held at WKU.

As he prepares to call himself a Hilltopper alumni, Braden is working with his family on exploring his professional opportunities. He would like “to do something music related, but I’m trying to figure it out, because with my vision, that already kind of limits me as far as what I can do.” In his spare time, he likes to read fiction and music books, and he’d like to remind the incoming class that “there’s a lot of things you can do on campus, not just in your major, but also with different organizations, so find something that suits you.”

Congratulations to Braden on reaching this milestone! You can find his compositions on his YouTube channel.