Author Spotlight
Kelly Murphy
Then fifth grader and beginner cellist Julia Stevermer watched in awe as the musicians of the symphony orchestra skillfully swept their bows across their strings under the spotlights in Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Stevermer and her mom were entranced by the group’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”.
“I thought to myself, ‘Someday, I want that to be me,’” Stevermer said. “‘I want to be up on that stage playing and I want to make beautiful music like that.’”
In November 2018, now junior Stevermer got the chance to make her childhood dreams come true and play that same piece on that same stage with the rest of the symphony orchestra. Stevermer, seniors Blake and Britain Modean, sophomore Mazey Heim and junior Vincent Hsiung are all a part of the symphony orchestra — the flagship orchestra of the Youth Symphony of Kansas City (YSKC). In addition, they’re each a part of East’s orchestra, directed by Adam Keda.
The YSKC is comprised of four orchestras: symphony, academy, philharmonic and debut. In total, over 450 students from around the Kansas City area participate in the YSKC’s orchestras, and around 110 of those are in the symphony orchestra.
The symphony orchestra plays professional orchestra level music and consists of the most talented musicians from grades 9-12, according to Heim. The symphony orchestra rehearses each Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., 45 minutes longer than the other three orchestras, in East’s band room.
“Since you have to re-audition every year, you have to make sure that you keep up on your practicing because otherwise someone else is going to take your spot,” Blake Modean said. “It’s really helpful for making sure that you are progressing as a musician and you’re not just stagnating.”
Hsiung’s favorite part about the symphony orchestra is that everyone chooses to audition for it and wants to be there. Stevermer agreed, it was the dedication and talent that she saw in the musicians of the YSKC as a fifth grader that drew her to audition during her freshman year.
“The caliber of the musicians are a lot different, and so we get a lot more opportunity to work on musicality, phrasing and the message we want to say with the music,” Stevermer said. “Also, the coolest part is that we get to work with woodwinds, brass and percussion [instruments], which we don’t get to in school. Like, you know, how often do you get to play with an oboe?”
Now that she’s a part of the prestigious symphony group, Stevermer doesn’t take her position lightly. She practices for around four hours a day before the symphony orchestra’s chair auditions and listens to at least four different recordings of each piece that they play.
Stevermer’s commitment to the symphony orchestra caught the eye of current conductor Steven Davis. Davis gave her the special opportunity to write the program notes (a section in the program which describes the pieces and their backgrounds) for last year’s fall concert.
“They were apparently really impressed by how much I knew about the composers and the pieces,” Stevermer said.
In addition, Stevermer shared her knowledge of composers by talking about Brahms and Mozart at the House of Music in June 2018 when the YSKC traveled to Austria in celebration of the YSKC’s 60th anniversary. Heim and Hsiung were also among those lucky enough to perform at MuTh, a concert hall for the Vienna Boys Choir, and other well-known concert halls around Vienna and Salzburg.
“It has been really cool to perform in places that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, like the Folly Theatre and now the Kauffman Center [for the Performing Arts],” Heim said. “[Having] the ability to go on the trips and work with different directors has made it into something that I would never really consider stopping.”
Keda notices the extra effort that each of the five put into orchestra at East. For example, Hsiung voluntarily private tutors sixth grade honor orchestra students after school on Thursdays. Heim also helps younger students by occasionally taking freshman orchestra members into the hall one by one during class to offer them advice on how to improve their songs.
“I trust them because they’ve demonstrated their skills and dedication to the group,” Keda said. “I know that I can give them responsibilities in the group.”
The symphony orchestra is currently practicing Ingrid Stölzel’s “City Beautiful”, a piece commissioned by the YSKC, and Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C minor. Their 60th Anniversary Finale Concert will be on Sunday, May 5 in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and the symphony orchestra will perform at 7 p.m.
“It’s like a sport: practice makes perfect,” Britain Modean said. “You can hear your mistakes, but you can also hear what you do right. If you put the effort in, there’s not much like standing there and accepting applause for a concert you know you did well in.
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