A Bonita Vista Middle School student is set be recognized on May 10, for being, well, remarkable.
Kieler Muller, 14, is one of 25 teens who will be honored at an event put on by the San Diego Public Defender’s Office as part of its inaugural Remarkable Teen Program.
Over 200 teenagers were nominated for awards in 25 different non-traditional categories, which included music, overcoming diversity, community service, social conscious and public speaking, among others.
The eighth-grader was selected as the winner of the Performing Arts: Singer/Songwriter category, after wowing with a rendition of musical artist Tori Kelly’s “Silent.”
San Diego county Public Defender Connie Howard conducted Kielers interview, and said she was inspired by her talent.
“She walked in with her guitar and a big smile on her face and she sang to me one of her favorite songs,” Howard said. “She had the voice of an angel and I was very impressed, she was very inspiring.”
Howard brought the Remarkable Teen Program to San Diego following years of conducting the program while both abroad with the peace corp and while working for the office of the mayor in Riverside.
“We reached out countywide for nominations and received 203, which is incredible for the first year,” Howard said. “It shows that the community really wants to talk about the good things that kids are doing.”
The public defender’s office collaborated with a 25-member youth council – made up of students from four downtown San Diego high schools – in order to select the winners.
Kieler will now be honored at the Central Library in downtown San Diego, where she will receive a trophy, and be amongst guests such as council members Barbara Bray and Monica Montgomery.
“I just kind of started screaming, I really didn’t think I was going to win,” Kieler said. “It was really, really awesome that I did, and I was really surprised and I was proud of myself. That was really cool.”
Kieler, who is self-taught in guitar, piano, ukulele and trumpet, has been performing since the age of three, when she had a role in the 2007 Bonitafest Melodrama.
In addition to appearing in plays, Kieler is co-president of the Bonita Vista Middle School choir, and has begun publicly performing on stage as a singer and guitarist, including at Le Stats, a coffee house.
“Just the feeling of being on stage and singing in front of an audience. It’s the best feeling in the entire world,” Kieler said.
Kieler has not missed appearing in a Bonitafest Melodrama since first performing in the annual music-based comedy show, which is based on South Bay history and is the brainchild of Dr. Max Branscomb, a journalism professor and advisor at Southwestern College.
Branscomb, who helped come up with the idea for the show in 1978, was responsible for nominating Kieler for the award, after he came across an ad in a local newspaper seeking out “remarkable teens.”
“She does stuff as a 12,13,14 year old that a lot of us that are musicians couldn’t do until we were in our twenties,” Branscomb said. “She’s just got a real gift for music, so I was very happy to nominate her. I think she’s a very, very talented young lady.”
The guitar Kieler used for her interview was actually a gift from Branscomb, who said a recent health scare prompted him to pass along what had been his favorite instrument.
“Sometimes guitars just speak to you,” he said. “There’s one that you’re meant to have, and this was hers more than it was mine.”
Kieler has been performing with the guitar ever since, a light-brown Taylor, a brand which she referred to as her “dream guitars.”
“Max had a Taylor and he never played it, so he lent it to me, and then one day he just told me that he wanted me to keep it and I started crying,” Kieler said.
What’s up next for Kieler remains to be seen, but the 14-year-old Tri-Music Honor Society member said she expects music to remain a part of her future.
