A Celebration of Musical Education
Reprinted from an article by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis
violin student Nicholas Bentz
TUESDAY NIGHT’S Showcase Concert by the Charleston Academy of Music (CAM) was a celebration of the wonders of musical education done right, the kind of education that used to be in school curricula and played an active role in shaping young minds and building character. It also reflected a sense of openness, community, and playfulness while, at the same time, giving the audience a strong sense of the discipline and hard work that is required to mature musically, at any age. Evident throughout the concert were the fruits of the CAM honors program and Kidzymphony.
The honors program partners talented students with advanced instruction by College of Charleston faculty through the support of individually funded scholarships, and it has produced several accomplished musicians, three of whom dazzled a standing-room-only audience at the Simons Recital Hall.
Shannon Fitzhenry, studying violin with Yuriy Bekker, performed the first movement of Henri Vieuxtemps’ difficult Violin Concerto no. 5, with Chee-Hang See accompanying on the piano. Her tone was rich and balanced, her phrasing strongly directed and musical, and her technical mastery impeccable, especially in the closing cadenza. Shannon was a tough act to follow, but the charismatic pianist Micah McLaurin, a student of Enrique Graf’s, pulled it off.
It’s hard to avoid comparing the angelic Micah with a young Brahms, so evidently gifted and musically mature at such a young age. Micah has already been placing in international competitions, and it’s a true honor to Charleston to produce such a talent from within its musical education system. Micah’s Chopin (he played a nocturne and the well-known A flat major Polonaise) was as technically immaculate, powerful yet wonderfully fluid, and artfully balanced in voicing and timbre as any I’ve heard anywhere—with some passages that took my breath away.
Nicholas Bentz, another honors program student working under Yuriy Bekker, performed the highly demanding fugue from Bach’s first sonata in g minor for solo violin, a work that asks for extreme subtlety in articulation and clear direction in bringing out the individual lines of a complex contrapuntal texture—all delivered with focus and determination by Nicholas, who is also a composer.
Kidzymphony is based on El Sistema, the widely successful orchestral training program that started in Venezuela as a way of bringing instrumental instruction and performance opportunities to underprivileged, grade-school children—which is exactly what CAM has pioneered in the lowcountry in partnership with the Meeting Street Academy.
It is beyond words to witness these kids play. Their rhythm may be approximate, their intonation slightly off, and their bowings scratchy, but there’s no mistaking how important it is to them to be on stage, dressed in their Sunday clothes, focused, engaged, and filled with a sense of achievement that brings tears to the eye. Led by Madeline Hershenson, Kidzymphony is an endeavor that needs to remain a priority and be wholeheartedly supported by our community, not only because it nurtures future musicians of considerable caliber, but even more because it makes serious music-making accessible to children who otherwise would never be exposed to anything of the kind, not to mention their families who flock to watch them perform.
These experiences are formative for their development as individuals well beyond the music realm: they open up the world of creativity and discipline, and allow them to dream of possibilities previously unthinkable to them. Being part of the Kidzymphony nurtures the experience of ensemble playing, which creates a sense of belonging, common goals, and community through music that is just not available to kids of that age in any setting, regardless of income level.
CAm director Enjoo Yun
CAM has been actively promoting ensemble playing in everything it does, as evidenced in this concert. The CAM Guitar Ensemble performed a transcription of the Pachelbel Canon that went from powerful unisons to part counterpoint and back. Then there is the CAM Strings Ensemble which meets every Saturday and focuses on “sight-reading and musicianship,” as instructor Kay Wheeler mentioned before joining them in two dance-inspired numbers, led by the ensemble’s co-instructor Tomas Jakubek—and one of which (the Worm Dance) was arranged by young pianist Caleb Borick, a regular accompanist of the CAM String Ensemble who closed the concert with a brilliant, ragtime-inspired solo piano encore.
About the showcase concert, CAM’s founder and executive director Eunjoo Yun put it best in her brief, energetic message as she said: “when these kids win, everybody wins.”
Yiorgos Vassilandonakis is an Assistant Professor of Composition & Music Theory at the College of Charleston.
The Charleston Academy of Music was started in 2003 by Eunjoo Yun as a place where “students are empowered to become achievers.”
