Harpist Strings Humanitarian Dreams
Shannon Polley, a high school senior in Danville is in high demand. Everyone wants her, from regional ensembles and retirement homes, to the music department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she enters as a pre-med student next fall. That’s because not only is a Polley an accomplished musician, she’s a harpist — quite a rare beast to find. On May 28 she is featured with the Contra Costa Wind Symphony in her farewell performance; she has been a member for five years, and soloed with them each year since. “Yes, I am the youngest member,” she says, “and at first that was scary, but everyone in the group is so nice and I’ve really enjoyed playing with and learning from them.”
Polley has “grown up” with her harp teacher Jessica Siegel, from the age of five, and her musical family at home. What she has learned is, “Work for what you want. Everything worth getting is worth the effort.” Siegel encourages her students to play community outreach concerts, sparking a love deep within Polley; to give something back. She says, “Also, through my work with young kids as a life guard, and with athletes at our school sports medical center, I realized I like to work with people and help them.” Though it’s a long way off, Polley aspires to be a pediatrician. But in the meantime, she’ll keep up with her music as much as possible, even if she needs a moving van to get herself and her harp off to college.
Come hear the concert.
Cantabile Swings Into Summer
With over 200 members and growing, Cantabile is one of Silicon Valley's leading youth choir and music education programs. And in mid-July the group heads across the pond to the Somerset International Children’s Choral Festival in the historic Wells Cathedral in Sherborne, England. Artistic Director Elena Sharkova will play a major role as guest conductor at the prestigious festival, where youth choirs from around the globe come together in a summit of song. Cantabile will then travel to Essex, to be hosted by the Southend-on-Sea Choir, reuniting with friends made when they hosted that choir here for four days in 2010.
Cantabile presents its final concerts this month, on May 14 and 21, and they promise to be jazzy, presenting music by Duke Ellington, Paul Simon, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and John Lennon. The May 14 concert features multiple groups from among Cantabile's six choirs while the May 21 concert showcases only the top two groups of Cantabile's most skilled singers, "Ensemble" and "Vocalise."
A Taste of the Professional Life
Photo by Nathanael Bennett
The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra is known for their free family concerts, the last in the season scheduled for this weekend. And if you don’t look carefully, you would never hear the fact that some of those musicians on stage are middle and high school students, sharing stands with the pros in the orchestra’s “side-by-side” program. This season, one young violinist taking advantage of the opportunity to learn by doing, is Oakland School of the Arts 7th grader, Ryan Frigo.
Frigo is impressed with the professional musicians: “I learn a lot because it’s not only how well they play but how they appear on stage,” he says. “They are always focused, always listening and that really helps me play better. I don’t feel nervous because the repertoire is fun and the audience is really into it, so it’s a low-pressure experience.” Frigo, one of the more serious middle school’ers at OSA, recently performed the solo in Winter of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the school chamber orchestra.
Director of the Instrumental program at OSA, Omid Zoufonoun, encourages his students to take part in the side-by-sides although sometimes their schedules are just too busy. “There is such an obvious benefit to performing together with professionals, and getting to work with a professional conductor,” he says. Other schools that have participated in the past are The Crowden School and San Francisco School of the Arts.