He taps his left foot and looks at his music notes on his stand while swaying his arms, conducting his students to the tune ‘America.’

Kevin Blickfeldt is a vocal professor for the music department at El Camino College who has been teaching for a year.

Music, for Blickfeldt, is his No.1 priority.

“It’s my whole life,” Blickfeldt said. “I’ll hear a piece of music and every hair on the back of my arm and neck goes up. It’s just always been a deeply visual thing I feel when I hear a great singer or a great melody. I’m just so drawn to it.”

Blickfeldt has been fortunate by his success in music.

“I’m humble,” Blickfeldt said. “I am one of the lucky ones, and not to discount any of the hard work, I worked my tail off but there’s always an element of luck and you can’t discount that.”

Blickfeldt’s talent has always been within him, but faced difficulties as a student in graduate school.

“In opera you’re working on your technique for so long because it’s hard,” Blickfeldt said. “You have to wait until you mature. We don’t really start singing until our late 20s and 30s because our bodies aren’t ready. There’s that sacrifice where you’re learning new languages and spending time with coaches to learn your craft.”

Blickfeldt’s talent has always been within him.

“My mom claims that before I could even speak, I was just always making sounds,” Blickfeldt said. “I always loved performing, singing, and then sort of when I got into my teenage years, I realized, not only do I love it, but I apparently have a knack for it.”

Blickfeldt had other things in mind before deciding to teach and sing.

“I originally wanted to be a standup comic as a kid,” Blickfeldt said. “In addition to performing I found that the more I taught the more I learned about my own singing and my own techniques.”

Blickfeldt’s most memorable moment was when he got to auditioned for America’s Got Talent.

“We sent in a tape and it was the four of us we heard that they had an interest in finding young classical singers,” Blickfeldt said. “We sent in a tape that we filmed outside an alley and they asked us to come in and we sang for the producers. The film crew told us it went so well and took us to Hollywood Boulevard. They had us walking across the streets and they were filming us, people were screaming who are you guys, taking pictures of us, and the four of us looked at each other thinking this is so real. It was exciting in a way that you can’t describe.”

A former student of his admires his teaching.

“His expertise always but definitely his commitment to the character he’s playing in his songs that he sings,” Daniel Outlaw, 23, music major, said.

Abraham Cervantez, 27, music education major, enjoys his teaching as well.

“He always seems to have a great spin on what you been working on,” Cervantez said. “I think that’s a great quality of a teacher to approach students on what they are doing and how they can improve.”

Blickfeldt sends out a message to students to follow their dreams.

“If there’s something you truly love, pursue it with all your heart and life would sort of show you,” Blickfeldt said.