THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406100178
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
DATELINE: 940612 LENGTH: Medium
Maybe it just seems that way, but Portsmouth seems to have a disproportionate number of people who go on to excel in the arts, some as full-time professionals.
{REST} Jeff Smith, the young saxophonist already known around the region for his extraordinary ability as a jazz player, won the music club's Lancaster Scholarship this year.
Smith, although he also is a classical musician, expects to be a professional jazzman after he graduates from Old Dominion.
A Woodrow Wilson High senior whose honors keep piling one on the other, Smith also received this year's Cradock Music Study Club scholarship.
And it wasn't by default.
Other applicants for the Lancaster scholarship were so good that the selection committee gave special talent awards to Wendy Smith, an organist who is graduating from Churchland High, and Benjamin Vick, a pianist who is graduating from Western Branch High.
Over the years the Lancaster Scholarship, named for one of Portsmouth's beloved music teachers and directors, has provided assistance for many talented students.
For instance, Berry Jones, a Manor graduate who studied in college with the help of a Lancaster scholarship, is now working on a master's in voice performance at Manhattan School of Music, which also awarded him a scholarship.
``We'll see his name in lights one day,'' said Jean Shackelford, retired music supervisor for the Portsmouth schools. She now heads the Lancaster Scholarship committee.
These youngsters are just a few of the students who excel in the arts.
Anne Turner, a music teacher at Churchland High School, keeps me posted on the arts students.
Just recently, she called to brag a bit about two choral groups from Churchland that came away from a large competition with top awards. So did a singing group from Wilson.
``People should know how well our students do,'' Turner said. ``We hear a lot about the athletes and we hear about the failures, but we don't hear about the students who do well in the arts.''
An amazing number of Portsmouth people have indeed excelled in the arts. When nominations came in for the Portsmouth Notables celebration a few years ago, they included large numbers of musicians, painters, actors and others who have continued in artistic endeavors since beginning in the schools here.
We hear about the really well-known people such as blues singer Ruth Brown and saxophonist Tommy Newsom. More recently, we've heard a lot about jazz violinist Karen Briggs, who stole the nationally televised Yanni show during the WHRO-TV fund-raiser this year.
Just last weekend at the Seawall Festival, Portsmouth-born Bill Deal packed the Signet Bank parking lot one more time. He's done it for years, and people still can't stay away!
For every one we hear about, there are many more who don't pop up in the news but who have full-time careers in the arts.
Of course, we mostly hear about those who go into areas of popular music.
Then there are people like Portsmouth native Ben Jones, a television star turned congressman from Atlanta, and there are dozens of writers and many, many painters.
Whatever the talents of the former residents, most of them were nourished in the Portsmouth public schools - some 50 years ago, some 10 years ago, some just recently.
When you hear a Berry Jones and now a Jeff Smith, you know that the same good things are going on in Portsmouth public schools.
The Lancaster Scholarship winners remind us every year.
{KEYWORDS} CLASS OF 1994 GRADUATION
by CNB