Perseverance. Resilience. Prayer. Timing.
For North Augusta Middle School choral teacher Tony Aaron Hambrick, the combination of these traits led him to be cast on the upcoming season of NBC’s “The Voice,” premiering Sept. 20.
Hambrick grew up on the Southside of Augusta and spent a majority of his time in Live River Baptist Church. He started singing at 5 years old in the church.
“It was one of the most liberating things, ever since then, that I have done,” he said. “It’s my place of peace. It is the place that I go to. Music is my saving grace.”
Hambrick started to make music his career, forming a gospel Christian band, Tony Aaron and the Truly Anointed. The group booked gigs around the Southeast, however when he decided to go solo, he saw his career start to fall.
He switched gears and turned to music education. Hambrick graduated from Augusta University and he started working as a choral teacher in Aiken County.
“I worked really hard. I wasn’t the best teacher, you know – I made a lot of mistakes but I felt at home. I was able to share my gift and my talent and do what I truly love which is music and truly live that every day, but not only live it ... to share it,” Hambrick said.
“I got to inspire my students. And I tell my students, ‘I am more than just your music teacher. I am going to teach you more than just music, but I am going to teach you about life,’ and the beauty about my class is that I am able to encourage them,” he said.
Hambrick, now in his fourth year at NAMS, leads the chorus and theater departments. In 2019, he was named Teacher of the Year at the school.
Encouragement from his family and his teaching award ultimately led him to start pursuing music professionally again. He started traveling to churches around the area and sharing his talent.
“When I started back up it was no longer about me,” he said. “And that is one thing that I learned from my earlier years. It was about me, about me wanting to be great. And I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted to have money. I wanted to have status and when I humbled myself and ... it no longer became about me, but it became about the one who saved me and it became about the one who delivered me and the one who made a way for me when I couldn’t make a way for myself.
“Doors really and truly started opening for me and things started happening to where you know the phone started ringing again and that confidence that I needed that I lacked in myself was restored and I am grateful for that and I am really truly thankful for that,” he continued.
One day, Hambrick, scrolling on social media, found an open call for NBC’s hit singing show “The Voice” where his colleagues pushed him to submit. Shortly thereafter, he received a phone call catching him off guard and congratulating him.
“My first response was I laughed, I mean hysterically. I just laughed. I think I laughed because I was in disbelief that it worked,” Hambrick recalled. “I made it. It happened. What I thought was impossible is actually possible. It’s not impossible, it’s not far fetched. Someone from the Southside of Augusta is not impossible. It’s not just a dream, but it can be reality.
“I can feel myself getting a little emotional. One ‘yes’ can change your life.”
Read the full North Augusta Star article here.