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Where EAST meets the Northwest
FINE-TUNING SKILLS. Erie Philharmonic associate concertmaster Irene Cheng works with students in the McDowell Orchestra at McDowell High School in Pennsylvania. Cheng is helping the orchestra prepare for a potential concert at Carnegie Hall. (AP Photo/Erie Times-News, Jack Hanrahan)
From The Asian Reporter, V19, #10 (March 10, 2009), page 8.
Pro violinist boosts high school orchestra’s sound
By Valerie Myers
Erie Times-News
ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Lauren Kozuchowsky is learning advanced violin techniques from a master at McDowell High School in Pennsylvania.
Violinist Irene Cheng is teaching strings players at the school as her schedule with Erie, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo symphonies permits.
"When Irene demonstrates music, we can use her as an example of what we are supposed to sound like," said Lauren, a 16-year-old sophomore at McDowell. "She is helping us so much."
Cheng is associate concertmaster of the Erie Philharmonic, concertmaster of Buffalo’s Camerata di Sant’ Antonio Chamber Orchestra, and a regular violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. She has been teaching weekly master classes at McDowell since January.
Like Lauren, she already hears a difference in the orchestra.
"Playing a string instrument is a choice. Having made that choice, kids generally like to get better at what they do," Cheng said. "And these kids are getting better."
McDowell Orchestra director Dave Hetrick asked Cheng to work with strings players, including some who have advanced beyond what he can teach them. Millcreek Township School District is paying her $2,000 to work with students this semester.
Cheng is teaching them to do vibrato — or to change a note by rocking the hand while playing — advanced shifting, and other high-level techniques.
"I’m a musician, but my specialty is not violin," Hetrick said. "It takes a violinist to demonstrate advanced techniques, like it takes a coach to demonstrate how to dribble and shoot a layup. You can talk a kid to death about how to do it, but show him, and he gets it."
Originally from Seattle, Cheng has played violin since age three. She earned her undergraduate degree in music from the University of Washington and a master’s degree in music from Yale University. She has been first violinist with the Barcelona Symphony, principal and assistant concertmaster of the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, and assistant concertmaster of the Malaysian Philharmonic. She will tour Asia with the Pittsburgh Symphony this spring.
"We’re extremely fortunate to have Irene in this area," Hetrick said. "A great many school districts never have access to someone like her."
Cheng feels fortunate to have access to the young musicians.
"The arts are dying out. There’s not a lot of support anymore," she said. "Even if these kids don’t become professionals, I hope that they learn to appreciate the arts and become art patrons."
The McDowell Orchestra performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. last spring and at New York’s Carnegie Hall three years ago. Hetrick and orchestra members hope to perform in New York a second time in 2010.
Junior cello player Casey Miller appreciates Cheng’s attention and preparation for a possible return to Carnegie Hall.
"We sound so much better since she’s been working with us," she said. "She’s really fine-tuned our music."