Music

Paul Aguilar at Meadowmount with his teacher, Sally Thomas

Six Strings Chamber Music students participated in distinguished summer programs and studied with renowned musicians. Paul Aguilar attended the Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, N.Y. and studied with Sally Thomas, violin faculty member at the Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music. Reagan Bachour performed at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Session and studied with violin faculty member Sarah Johnson. Shannon Elliott studied at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. She studied with Lenny Schranze, violist of the Ceruti Quartet and professor of music at the University of Memphis. Jonathan Simmons attended the Masterworks Music Festival in Indiana and studied with Leonardo Altino, cellist of the Ceruti Quartet. Katherine Woo studied at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine. She studied violin with Itzhak Rashkovsky, professor of violin at the Royal College of Music in London.

Maria Parrini

Maria Parrini, a junior,  performs as a cellist and pianist in the Fine Arts Center's Chamber Music classes. Maria attended the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina and studied with pianist Norman Krieger, soloist and faculty member at the University of Southern California. Maria was one of four winners in the Brevard Festival's concerto competition, and the only winner of high school age. To close the concert, she performed the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor by Johannes Brahms with the Transylvania Symphony, led by David Wiley.

David Wilson

Percussionist David Wilson (WHHS 2012) was one of 16 students selected internationally to participate in the Juilliard Summer Percussion seminar, held July 16-28. The seminar was described on the Juilliard website: "During two intensive weeks in the exciting cultural environment of New York's Lincoln Center, students pursue hands-on study of all the major percussion instruments … and are introduced to world hand drums, percussion chamber music and both multi- and solo-percussion repertoire. Seminar participants experience a challenging range of master classes, clinics, lectures, rehearsals and performances, with all of this activity focused on preparing them for success in conservatory and college auditions." The seminar is lead by Juilliard Percussion Department Chair Daniel Druckman and assisted by multi-percussionist and Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, Joseph Gramley. It is staffed by percussionists of world renown.
Other students who participated in summer music programs were Blake Andrews (North Greenville University); Justin Lamb (University of South Carolina); Justin Lamb, Paul Mitchell, Josh Hill, Keegan Trofatter, Grant Lockridge and Henry Randall (Fine Arts Center Summer Percussion Seminar).
Drummer Louis Kirk (WHHS 2012) toured with his band, The Soap (which includes FAC students Brandon Broussard on electric bass and Eric Matthews on guitar), during the month of July, performing in venues in Atlanta, Ga., multiple cities in Florida, and in Knoxville, Tenn.

Guest Artists
In September Lawrence Stomberg, cellist of the Serafin String Quartet and faculty member at the University of Delaware, gave a master class for the Strings Chamber Music students. Later this month Lenny Schranze, violist of the Ceruti String Quartet and faculty member at the University of Memphis, will return to the Fine Arts Center to lead master classes.

Blake Andrews

FAC Summer Percussion Seminar

Justin Lamb

Louis Kirk