CAM Students to Showcase Their Skills
THE CHARLESTON ACADEMY OF MUSIC (CAM) will officially open the 2011-2012 season with a Tuesday, November 8 Showcase Concert featuring academy program ensembles, the Kidzymphony Orchestra, and solo performances by honors-program students Nick Bentz, Shannon Fitzhenry, and Micah McLaurin.
Hosted by Ann Caldwell and Chee-Hang See, the evening will include music ranging from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to works of Bach and Chopin, plus an anticipated performance by Ms. Caldwell. In the words of Kay Wheeler, violin instructor at CAM, the evening is designed to “show you how good it really gets. Seeing the advanced students will inspire everyone, and seeing the beginners will make you understand how all our hard work and lessons come together to produce good musicians.”
CAM is a non-profit organization with a mission to empower students to become achievers by providing superior professional musical instruction and performance opportunities through its core programs: academy, honors, and orchestra. CAM’s vision for the future is to bridge gaps in the accessibility of high-caliber education while nurturing, through music, the most basic of human necessities: self-expression and a sense of community.
Showcase Concert
Tuesday, November 8 • 6:30 P.M.
CofC Simons Center Recital Hall, St. Philip Street
Learn more at www.charlestonmusic.org
A Little About the Musicians
Nicholas Bentz studies violin at CAM with Yuriy Bekker, Concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and has performed as a member of the Charleston Youth Orchestra, as concertmaster of the Youth Orchestra of the Lowcountry, and as a soloist at Piccolo Spoleto. He is currently a member of the College of Charleston Orchestra.
Shannon Fitzhenry also studies violin at CAM with Yuriy Bekker. She is a violinist in her family’s strings ensemble, Coastal Chamber Musicians, and a member of the College of Charleston Chamber Orchestra. She was a featured soloist with the 2010 Piccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra and was accepted into the 2010 Aspen Music Festival Concert Orchestra where she was third chair.
Micah McLaurin studies piano at CAM under Enrique Graf on a full scholarship from CAM and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League. He has been a soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the South Carolina Philharmonic, and the Perugia Festival Orchestra. He is also the youngest pianist to ever give a recital at the International Piano Series in Charleston.
Ann Caldwell sings about love and loss, heartache, and heaven from several genres: jazz, spirituals, pop standards, folk, and rhythm and blues. She has performed locally and nationally for more than two decades. A native of Denmark, S.C., Ann brings with her the spirits of her ancestors who lived on oak-lined dirt roads and used music as a way to commune with each other, nature, and God.
Chee-Hang See has performed as a soloist, accompanist, and chamber pianist in his native Singapore and had participated in performances and masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music, UK, and Birmingham Conservatory, UK. He is currently studying under Enrique Graf at the College of Charleston as a Piano Performance Major.
