Praveen Batra (12) has resolved to enter college with a singular conviction: to pursue computer science to the greatest degree. But when he entered high school, Praveen had no strong expectation of what he would do—no particular overarching goals.

“When I think about my high school as a unit, I find it’s defined by a lot of events and a lot of trends, it’s just that some of those trends, like especially me starting to sing—they’re not connected at all to any goal I had when I stepped onto the campus,” Praveen said. “I remember at the first club fair I heard Guys’ Gig, they were touring, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s one club I’m never going to join.’ So if you look, there’s a big disconnect between what my vision of what my high school would be like and where it actually turned out being.”

But Praveen did join Guys’ Gig. Though he has stuck with Guys’ Gig for four years and sung in other groups, such as Bel Canto and Camerata, Praveen actually originally joined Guys’ Gig intending to use aspects of singing techniques to refine his piano phrasing.

“In ninth grade, I was at one of the first Guys’ Gig meetings, and lo and behold, a person I did not expect shows up—and it’s Praveen,” Rahul Bhethanabotla (12) said. “I was surprised and I was intrigued, because I’d never seen this side of Praveen before. Throughout the year I realized he’s so dedicated, and that was something I admired a lot, and the fact that we were the only two stable freshmen in Guys’ Gig then really made us bond a lot closer.”

Praveen had had no prior singing experience going into Guys’ Gig, and only a year or so of music experience, making singing a unique challenge.

“When Praveen first started, he couldn’t even match a pitch. By the end of the first year, he was just barely getting a few notes,” said Susan Nace, who directs Guys’ Gig, Bel Canto and Camerata. “He was in Bel Canto, he learned some more, he got better, and also in Guys’ Gig, he got better, then in junior year he was able to be in Camerata and had improved even more. What was really exciting to me is not only has he gotten better in terms of being to sing the notes, it’s also holding your part in difficult harmony and he’s gotten much better at that. But the really exciting thing is he has a really beautiful tenor voice, and it’s beginning to round out and have resonance and power. There’s a real beauty to it that’s extraordinary.”

Praveen believes that his growth as a singer has thus been one of his most formative experiences in high school. Witnessing the process of growing from complete inexperience to great skill has nuanced his perspective on education.

“[Singing has] taught me both a lot of humility and a lot of faith,” Praveen said. “Seeing that I could learn something entirely different over the span of two to three years—that the plasticity’s still there, that knowledge can still be acquired—has been very inspiring. [It has] definitely made me more willing to try new things and to embrace failure. That’s definitely invaluable—because there’s a lot more things you can do if you’re not afraid of failure. I know now that to say, ‘Oh, I have difficulty with this’—to see improvement happen is really inspiring, and that’s inspired me then to seek improvement in areas in which I see my weaknesses.”

Like as with singing, Praveen picked up piano relatively recently—around eighth grade.

“He started trying out the piano a little bit, and the summer before freshman year I started giving him piano lessons, and I lent him our better electric piano that had been just sitting in the garage for years so he could have a slightly better instrument to work with,” Andrew Semenza (12) said. “Now he likes playing ragtime on the piano, so it’s been kind of a continuing factor.”

Both Andrew and Rahul have been with Praveen through his growth as a pianist and have offered him differing perspectives on the art. Andrew introduced Praveen to classical piano, beginning with a recording of Bach’s Concerto for Four Pianos, and Rahul introduced Praveen to jazz and pop piano.

“I told him ‘try this stuff out, it sounds interesting,’ and over the summer I expected him to grow, cause I knew he was going to practice because that’s the kind of guy he was,” Rahul said. “But by the time he got back to school, he was so good I was astounded by his growth. In just a summer, Praveen had gotten to a level it took me five years to get to probably, and it spoke to me not of his skill but his dedication. It’s almost obscene how dedicated he was to piano.”

Yet in addition to this dedication to music, Praveen has also pursued computer science. Having grown up in a family as the son of two programmers and the youngest sibling of two older brothers that pursued computer science in high school—one of whom majored in computer science—Praveen believes that his family helped spark his interest in computer science.

“Talking to [my family] has always been really helpful because they know a lot, and by talking to them I can learn a lot about not just specifics, but a lot more high level stuff and getting a broader appreciation of how a computer’s parts all work together,” Praveen said.

And though Praveen wants to focus on studying computer science in college, he has decided to continue his interest in music by pursuing it through extracurriculars.

“Praveen is going to have some things to offer to the musical world if he chooses to,” Nace said. “I know his world is a world of computer science, and yet I know that some of the best computer scientists are also musicians. They have an artistic side; they are the ones who are creative, who take their discipline to a different, more creative level. So I think we’re going to be hearing some things about Mr. Praveen Batra in the future from that standpoint.”

So whenever you see Praveen performing there on stage, playing accompaniment for a group or singing himself, remember—this is a man of great talent and dedication for both kinds of keyboard.