Strathmore musicians finding great success
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
Years and years of practicing, has lead two Strathmore musicians to have unbelievable experiences that musicians dream of having.
Brother and sister Timothy and Sarah Steeves have moved away from Strathmore to fulfill their musical dreams and have accomplished great things.
Sarah has been playing the cello for more than 20 years and is currently pursuing a doctorate in music at the University of Toronto.
On Feb. 18, Sarah had the opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas[YOA].
“Carnegie Hall is kind of like the musical Olympics,” said Sarah. “It’s that nearly mythological place you hear about with a huge amount of respect.”
She said that playing at Carnegie Hall isn’t like most goals, like where you can control a grade on an exam by lots of practicing. Sarah said, to perform at Carnegie Hall you have to have a lot of luck and good timing.
“If it wasn’t for YOA, I probably never would have gotten to perform there,” she said.
Sarah’s YOA experiences started last summer as she toured with the group through the United States and Canada and was involved with the group in Washington D.C. for an outreach project.
“The opportunities that YOA gives me, seems to constantly place me outside of my musical comfort zone, work with wonderful musicians that I would never otherwise meet,” Sarah said.
She said the experience at Carnegie Hall was magical and that she had never been there before, even as an audience member.
She said it was fantastic to get to play with an orchestra filled with people she loves, two world-class soloists and two amazing conductors, including Valery Gergiev, who conducted the orchestra from Red Square at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics as part of the Sochi 2014.
“Then, just to make it that much more awesome, we performed really well,” said Sarah. “The whole orchestra was buzzing with energy.”
Timothy plays the violin and attends the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
He was selected as one of four students from his program to play at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on May 10 as part of the Conservatory Project.
“It is an honour to represent my school at one of North America’s premier artistic institutions,” said Timothy.
The conservatory project is an initiative of Performing Arts for Everyone’s Millennium Stage and is designed to present young musical artists in classical, jazz, musical theatre and opera from the United States’ leading undergraduate and graduate conservatories, colleges and universities.
It is to showcase and introduce audiences to young musicians destined to have important careers.
“We we’re like in shock,” said Carolyn Steeves, their mother. “It’s a huge honour. We were thrilled.”
The four students will be doing a 60-minute recital, with each performer given 15 minutes to perform.
Timothy will be playing a program of Czech music from Martinu and Kapralova.
“I have a special liking of this repertoire partly because of my studies in the Czech Republic during the past two summers in particular with Ivan Strauss who knew both composers personally,” said Timothy.
Timothy said he hopes to become a professional musician and would love to play in one of the world’s major orchestras, in a string quartet or anywhere he is privileged to play and study music.
“I’m very proud,” said Carolyn about Sarah and Timothy, fighting back tears. “Music is a tough life to make it as a musician and they’re both doing very well.”