Academy’s Stefan Farrenkopf at This Year’s TEDxColumbus. Photo credit TEDxColumbus.

Founded by Ruth Milligan in 2009, TEDxColumbus gives people from our community an opportunity to showcase their talents and stories. While the first convention only had eight speakers and 300 audience members, it now boasts over 150 talks and 5000 attendees accumulated over the last eight years.

“[Our mission is] to show a diversity of ideas worth spreading and to inspire great conversation and dialogue,” said Milligan. “Speakers become better presenters, audience members are educated and enlightened, and organizers are armed with a whole new set of leadership skills.”

At this year’s TEDxColumbus event on November 4, speakers had to present those ideas revolving around the theme of risk. The day was split into two sessions where the audience, which included seven Academy students, reflected on 18 presenters’ experiences and insight concerning risk. One presentation, however, daringly embraced the theme to its fullest extent.

Risk is the opposite of safety. It goes against all notions of preparation, planning, and predetermined results. Risk is all about delving headfirst into the unknown without the security of knowing where you’ll end up. And that is exactly what Upper School English Teacher and Spring Musical Co-director, Mr. Stefan Farrenkopf challenged himself to do.

While the other performers at the event were prepping backstage, Farrenkopf was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was seated in the audience, keyboard in his lap, pencil in hand, and ready to jot chords or potential lyrics. He would be performing last, but he wasn’t using the extra time to practice—on the contrary—he was composing an original song that he would perform at the end of the session that encompassed each of the previous talks.

Farrenkopf didn’t go into the event completely blind. As an experienced singer-songwriter, he had knowledge of his limits and ideas he knew could work in a song. He knew he wanted to write a more upbeat song, as he wanted to end the day on an optimistic note. In preparation for the time constraint and stress, he watched TED Talks and tried to come up with song ideas for those on the spot, practicing in the school’s theater until late at night. Additionally, he had attended the rehearsals and had also read the presenters’ bios beforehand, so he had a few ideas before composing. The real challenge came in weaving those ideas together.

One of the greatest challenges he faced was in combining the wide array of topics and making them lyrical. “The whole middle section of the event was geared toward technological advances in medicine or things about antibiotics,” said Farrenkopf. “And I was sitting there thinking, how am I going to make poetry out of this?” Thankfully, some lines lent themselves almost perfectly to the song. “There were some really powerful talks, and some of them came from incredibly traumatic and sad life experiences. Some of what they said provided lines that were really beautiful.” Despite the initial difficulty, a direct quote from each talk found its way into the song.

Farrenkopf’s inspiration for his performance was closely tied to his love of live theater. “I love going to live performances. When the audience knows that something could go wrong and that the person is taking a risk, there’s a relationship between the audience and the performer . . .  you’re part of a moment, and you’re celebrating that moment.”

He also hoped to emphasize the emotions and passion behind a performance rather than its perfection. “It’s okay if you make a mistake. At an audition or after a show we say, ‘how did you do?’ And a student will say ‘Well, I made three mistakes.’ But nobody cares about that. How was your enthusiasm? How was the engagement? I wanted to capture and experience that moment.”

And capture it he did. As Farrenkopf sat with his fingers poised above the keys, a suspenseful silence descended over the audience. The quiet wasn’t filled with apprehension, but instead encouragement. That moment between the audience and performer was palpable, and people were appreciating his passion and the creativity of the piece rather than searching for mistakes.

After the last note faded out, it didn’t take long for the audience members to spring to their feet, and applause filled the room. “It was clear that the song I wrote resonated with people, and that was really exciting,” said Farrenkopf. “People whose opinions mean a lot to me were enthused and proud, and that meant a lot to me.”

A video of Mr. Farrenkopf’s performance can be seen below.