One Former Camper's Memories Become a Legacy: - Reading ...

Looking back
was eight years old, clutching a half-size violin, the
I very first time the Reading Musical Foundation
impacted my life. Having just performed a rousing
rendition of Suzuki Book 4 favorites for an imposing
panel of judges, including Maestro Sidney Rothstein,
former music director of the Reading Symphony
Orchestra, I was absolutely beside myself to learn I
had been awarded $25 in the form of a Katherine
N. Quartner - Rita Quartner Herman String
Scholarship. Little did I know that seven years later,
I would be honored with the opportunity to perform
a solo with the RSO under the very same Maestro
Rothstein, as a winner of the Reading Symphony
Orchestra League’s Annual Youth Auditions. I gained
further performance experience in Berks County
through the ByndenWood Music Youth Recitals/
Luncheon Series held at the YMCA of Reading. I
was again honored by the incredible Berks music
community with an invitation to perform with my
string quartet as the season opener in the Friends
of Chamber Music of Reading Concert Series. The
chance to return home in a professional capacity,
revisiting all the individuals and organizations who
had a hand in shaping me as a musician, meant more
to me than I can express.
I owe my early love of chamber music to Peter Brye
and the rest of the wonderful faculty at the Millersville
University Summer Chamber Music Institute. I had
the good fortune to encounter Mr. Brye through the
Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra, an ensemble
in which I participated from 1996-2003. I distinctly
recall my summers at Millersville as pivotal in my
musical education; I was fascinated by the immediacy
of expression and the new textures introduced to
me in string trios, quartets, and piano quintets and
I was equally fascinated by the fact that hanging out
with friends and making music together all day was
considered a viable career option!
Having laid this solid chamber music foundation
Reflections by Rachel Shapiro
at such an early age, I continued to pursue quartet
playing at various music festivals across the country.
The RMF again came to my assistance in providing
me with the Samuel L. Correnti Scholarship for my
college tuition. In my second year as a performance
major at the Cleveland Institute of Music, I began
reading through enormous stacks of sheet music
with three of my good friends. We began playing
together as the Aeolus Quartet, participating in
CIM’s Intensive Quartet Seminar, led by the Cavani
Quartet and Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet.
Despite our schedules packed with classes, lessons,
and orchestra, we made quartet rehearsal our priority,
often to the chagrin of our academic professors. Our
work paid off this past year, however, as we traveled
to Los Angeles to compete in the 2009 Coleman
Chamber Ensemble Competition and received
the Coleman-Barstow Prize for Strings. We will
begin this fall as the first ever Graduate Quartet-in-
Residence at the University of Texas at Austin, where
we will work closely with the Miro Quartet.
During our Friends of Chamber Music concert on
October 23rd, I had an opportunity to thank everyone
in the Berks music community for their support
and encouragement from the very beginning of my
studies. This concert featured the world premiere
of The Still Point, a seven-movement quartet written
for the Aeolus Quartet by composer and dear friend
Alexandra Bryant. We also presented a special
community outreach program at the Wyomissing
Hills Elementary Center, a place where I myself
spent five memorable years. I hope that we sparked a
passion for music in these students, who are so very
lucky to live in this community that nurtures and
promotes the arts.
Editor’s Note: Rachel is a 2005 graduate of Wyomissing
High School and a long-time recipient of merit awards
through RMF. We wish her and the Aeolus Quartet the
best of luck in their new venture!
CAMPAIGN 2009 • NEWS OF NOTE •