BRUNSWICK

Brunswick High School Valedictorian Kyra Teboe’s talents are music to the ears — literally.

The 17-year-old learned a lot through the school’s music program, to which she’s also given back. Teboe accompanies the high school chorus on piano and oversees the orchestra musicians as pit director during school musicals.

Sitting at a piano with no sheet music, her fingers dancing across the keys, improvising on “Take the ‘A’ Train,” Teboe reflected on her experience.

“I’m very lucky to have gone to a high school where the music program is so strong,” Teboe said.

Music runs naturally in her family, but Teboe also practices. A lot.

“I think the incentive was always that I wanted to become better,” she said.

Teboe began studying at age 6, and later became influenced by jazz pianists such as Oscar Peterson. “For me, it’s sort of revolutionized music itself,” she said.

Jazz improvisation, she said, is just like language.

“It’s like having a conversation with someone versus reading a speech off a page,” she said.

Her skills aren’t limited to the keyboard — Teboe also plays tenor saxophone in the band. Moreover, she takes her academic skills as seriously as her music, and is graduating at the top of her class.

Teboe’s attention is now on the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, which has five-year dual degree programs, and got early acceptance into Harvard College, the the undergraduate liberal arts college of Harvard University, where she’ll earn a Bachelor of Arts. By the fifth year, will have earned a master’s degree from the music conservatory.

She was sold when she learned Esperanza Spalding, a jazz bassist and singer, would be on the faculty.

“She was my idol,” Teboe said.

Brunswick High School music teacher Ashley Albert said she’s worked with a lot of pianists and accompanists, but said Teboe is the most humble and the hardest working — as well as very talented.

“She is one of the best musicians — not even just students but truly one of the best musicians I’ve had the honor or working with,” Albert said. “Whenever she plays in our pits with the professionals, people are astounded.”

She’s seen Teboe transpose music on the spot, come up with 16 bars of connective material and tell everyone else in the pit how to do it. She praised Teboe’s energy and positive attitude, which she has seen make an impact on the other students.

“She really practices harder than anyone I’ve ever met,” Albert said. “She’s so dedicated to her craft and is so passionate about it.”

Which is good, because as Teboe says, a musician’s work is never done.

“You’re never satisfied with where you’re at,” Teboe said. “You always want to keep getting better or at least continue exploring — thinking of new ways to approach the music or trying to crate something new.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com