Lessons and Surprises from a Summer at Brevard
Anna wasn’t expecting to perform the complete Firebird Suite when she stepped onstage for her first concert with the Brevard Concert Orchestra. Conductor Ken Lam had chosen Stravinsy’s monumental work to challenge the high school musicians during their first week at the intensive summer training program, nestled in the heart of North Carolina near Asheville
“Seeing that we were just starting to get to know the campus and each other, Maestro decided to have us only perform the last two movements for the first concert,” Anna recalls. But to the orchestra’s surprise, Lam made a promise to the audience that they would present the piece once again—in its entirety—at the festival’s final concert. “We all felt the pressure!” Anna admits. Looking back, she can say without a doubt that playing Firebird was her favorite experience of the summer: “It was fantastic. It was an explosion. It was incredible!”
A typical day at Brevard was anything but typical for Anna, who is used to waking up at 7:30 or 8:00. Her Brevard days began at 5:45 AM with cabin chores, followed by a whirlwind of music theory or history classes, then either a studio class, private lesson, chamber rehearsal, or practice time. Despite demanding two-and-a-half hour afternoon rehearsals, Anna found orchestra to be “the most fun but also the most exhausting” part of her day. When not attending an evening concert, students took advantage of time to catch up on sleep, practice until curfew, or bond with roommates in their cabins.
When it came time for the masterclass with world-renowned violinist Philippe Quint, Anna was the only high-schooler selected to perform, playing the first movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. “He had me work on the first measure a lot . . . that was pretty much the entire masterclass!” Quint helped Anna improve her finger placement to perfect the intonation in the opening measure. “I noticed the intonation improvement immediately. The pitch was so clean after he had me correct it.” Another memorable learning experience was being one of two violinists selected to conduct the fourth movement, March to the scaffold, of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique during the the Brevard Concert Orchestra’s final rehearsal.
Anna is grateful for the opportunity to attend Brevard Music Center. “I immersed myself in music more than I ever have . . . I know that this summer experience will accompany me and shape me as a musician for the rest of my life." She encourages other aspiring musicians to explore summer programs, research their faculty, assess whether the program’s intensity is the right fit, and seek their teachers’ advice. “You’ll never know what’s out there or what kind of life-long friends you’ll meet unless you just go for it.”
Anna is a 10th grade violinist in the MYS Symphony Orchestra. She lives in Northfield and is a student of Dr. Francesca Anderegg, who is Associate Professor of Music at St. Olaf College as well as violin faculty at Brevard Music Center.
