Wisconsin Life

cacophony of instruments warming up

Becoming a professional musician is hard work. It takes dedication, practice,

saxophone flourish

all that jazz. That's Colin Orth's dream.

Colin Orth

I want to be a traveling musician. First of all, I love traveling. I love going to different places that I haven't been to before. New experiences, things like that.

director claps rhythmically

Colin Orth

One, two, one, two, three, four.

Angela

Colin plays trumpet in the Chippewa Falls High School Jazz Band.

playing trumpet powerfully

Colin Orth

I love how it stands out. I like how you can always hear a trumpet in a band. There's no hiding when you're playing the trumpet.

stately trumpeting

Colin Orth

If you ever hide when you're playing trumpet, you're not playing trumpet correctly.

trumpets in a jazz sound

Angela

The trumpet helped Colin find focus, especially since his childhood wasn't always so harmonious.

trumpeting sustained note

Angela

As a newborn, Colin's skin seemed to bruise easily, enough to worry his mother, Angie. He was bruised frequently, and when you're the parent staying home with your new baby, and your baby's bruised, you start to have some alarm. The baby's going to the doctor frequently during those first few months anyway for inoculations, so I would bring those to her attention, and she was concerned enough, after a few months of us seeing this pattern, that she referred us to Rochester, where he went to see the hematologist. At five months old, Colin was diagnosed with severe hemophilia B. It means his blood is missing a protein that helps it clot naturally. Let's say, if I get a small cut, it might bleed for a little bit longer than somebody else. It also creates a much higher risk of internal bleeding from everyday activity, especially in joints like the elbows, wrists, or knees.

Angie Sterling-Orth

A bleed would be an injury to a joint or muscle that causes bleeding to happen under the surface so the bleeding does not stop. In the hemophilia world, they call it "a bleed."

Angela

Colin manages his hemophilia with medicine, an infusion of the missing protein into his blood every 10 days.

Colin

I'd say, I have to be a little more careful than regular people, but it's nothing that holds me back from doing other activities and things like that.

Angela

One day soon, Colin will leave home and be on his own. That's a scary day for any parent, but especially when a child's health depends on a strict self-care schedule.

Angie Sterling-Orth

He's getting older. He knows how to take care of himself, but we're letting him have more independence. So we're getting to that point we're going to have to let him go, trusting that self-care will follow. We'll see.

Angela

In 2018, Angie found help

from an unlikely source

her Twitter feed. The CEO of a production company was auditioning teams with bleeding disorders for a show in New York City. The title? Breaking Through!

Hemophilia

The Musical.

Angie

It felt really surreal, but I followed the link and I looked at it. When he got home from camp, I said, "You gotta look at this," and I think he thought it was surreal, too. Hello, this is Colin Orth, applying for the Break Through! musical in New York City.

"Love Shack" B-52's

Angie

So, I sent him a recording of me singing some of my favorite songs, and sure enough, they emailed back in a couple weeks saying that, "Congratulations, you're in."

Angela

Colin flew to New York to rehearse and perform in a Broadway-style show, a traveling musician's dream. When I went to New York, I finally felt like I actually took my first step into the professional music business.

Scene One

Friends reunite after summer months. For some, it's their first day in high school.

Angela

One goal of the musical was to raise awareness about bleeding disorders. Why was I chosen? Why was it me? It gave me goosebumps and it made me cry. And the pain Doesn't fade

Colin

It made me feel really nice that hemophilia is getting a lot more attention than it has in the past. I'm still here today

Angela

More importantly, it encouraged the actors to take care of themselves as they enter adulthood.

Angie

We've done all this work for 18 years to prepare, to get him to this next stage. So, we have to just jump in and know that it will go well. It's a no, no, no Some of those messages in those songs were good for me to hear and see that it will be okay. Don't think you're all alone Hard times have made us grow To be the person you're meant to be

metronome pulsing

Colin

Here's your tempo.

Angela

Colin plans to double-major in music and either business or marketing.

band playing

Colin

Ba-dah-buh

Angie

I think whatever he does, whether it's performing as a professional trumpet player, if it's music post-production, or running a trumpet gear shop, or whatever it is, his leadership skills will really support him through that.

Colin

I get to play this instrument, and I might be able to make a future out of it, and I love doing it. No matter what happens,

Colin playing piano

Colin

his brush with Broadway gave him the confidence to keep hitting those high notes. I'm feeling free And loving life Never let the other people that have negative comments toward you bring you down. Know that you have an entire community of people like us. Life That will push you up and never let you down.

audience cheers, applauds, and hollers "Whoo!"

Cast

Thank you!