Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104120714
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-18 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TIM MOSER/ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Alex Wade's foot tapped ever so slightly with his first notes of the allegro movement of Mozart's "Concerto in G Major."
Michael Doherty's performance of the same spirited piece ended with a cadenza that he composed himself.
All three violinists were participants in the Strings and Bows Club's recent honors recital at the Grandin Court United Methodist Church. The club, sponsored by the Thursday Morning Music Club, is for Roanoke Valley students, ages 6-18, who are actively studying and performing stringed music. Similar clubs are sponsored for musicians of other types of instruments.
The 10 students who qualified for the honors recital were competing to perform at Roanoke College April 21 in a recital that will include similarly chosen students playing other instruments. The judge, Joe Corn, a professional musician and former member of the Roanoke Symphony, scored the students on such things as finger and bow positions, bowing tone, intonation, rhythm and musicality: dynamics, expression, style.
The recital was exceptional because all 10 entrants had been recommended to play in April. Meador, Wade and Doherty were among those to receive a perfect score.
Ivor Brown, who has taught music for 39 years and is a member of the Roanoke Symphony, asked Meador, one of his pupils, to perform in the honors recital because "she's an unusually talented girl. She memorizes easily."
Brown has taught Meador since she was 5. At 8, she is one of the youngest members of the Strings and Bows Club.
Meador said she had wanted to play the violin because her parents liked to listen to classical music. "I wanted to play when I was 3, but they said I would have to wait until I was 5."
She already has performed for numerous public functions, including church programs, birthday parties and the Strings and Bows Club. She said she practices about two hours a week.
Wade, 15, is also Brown's student. He has been playing violin for eight years and is a member of the Roanoke Youth Symphony. He said the Strings and Bows Club, of which he is president, has helped him "gain confidence in being able to stand before people."
His mother started him on the piano and violin at age 7, but he has always preferred the violin. He practices 30 minutes a day on his own but puts in several hours a week with the youth symphony, First Baptist Church orchestra and Patrick Henry High School strings group.
Doherty, 17, is a student of Benedict Goodfriend, an associate professor at Roanoke College and a well-known Roanoke area musician and teacher.
While in kindergarten, Doherty chose the violin over the piano because "it was unique. Everyone else was taking piano lessons."
He has continued to love the violin and is concertmaster of the Roanoke Youth Symphony and the symphony at Patrick Henry.
Besides playing with both groups, Doherty rehearses a minimum of two hours twice a week as a member of a chamber group at Roanoke College and practices an hour a day on his own. He recently had a part in a school play, but Doherty's time outside music is limited. He passed up the lacrosse team this year to devote more time to the violin. He is a past president of Strings and Bows.
As is quite common among Strings and Bows Club members, Meador, Wade and Doherty all aspire to become members of the Roanoke Symphony.
Cathy Fisher, a 15-year violist with the symphony, is pleased with such opportunities as the honors recital. "Things like this are great. They give the students experience performing, which is essential [to their growth as musicians]," she said.
"They also give them experience being watched. Playing for other people builds confidence and makes auditioning less stressful," she said, adding that the experience is helpful whether or not students become professional musicians.
Fisher is especially glad Strings and Bows exists because public schools no longer offer stringed instruments on the elementary level as they did when she was in school. Students, she said, "need to be playing concertos and sonatas by junior high rather than `Mary Had a Little Lamb' ."
The other musicians chosen for the recital at Roanoke College are Will Cecer, Justin Marlles, Ted Cecer, Kristen Lynch, Shaleigh Wright and Rita Turner, all violinists, and Michelle Eanes, a string bass player.
Anyone interested in more information can contact Melva Jones, 342-0683, or Katherine Jacocks, 345-0172, of the Strings and Bows Club, or Agnes Downie, 774-6633, of the Thursday Morning Music Club.
by CNB