Hannah White
Xavier Foley
The Detroit News
February 19, 2014
Chris Felcyn
This weekend, young black and Latino string
players from all over the country will gather in Orchestra Hall for the
17th annual Sphinx Competition.
Though geographically diverse, they all share a passion for what they do and a drive to make music their life’s work.
...
Among the nine senior division semi-finalists is violinist Clayton Penrose-Whitmore, 20, originally from Springfield, Ill.
“I
actually started when I was 4 years old. My parents went to the
Illinois State Fair, and they saw a group of violinists playing, and
they kind of thought it would be cool to start me out and see what
happened, and I’ve been playing ever since. They actually started violin
and cello at the same time I started; it kind of went together. They
still play once in a while.”
Now Clayton
spends eight months out of the year attending the prestigious and highly
competitive New England Conservatory of Music on the way to turning his
love of music into a career.
“Playing the
violin naturally fed into my passion for music; it’s just being able to
express a lot of inner feelings. Some people write in journals and I
equate playing violin to that.”
Xavier Foley’s reasoning for learning the double bass was simple enough: “I liked the bass because it was a big instrument.”
Foley,
19, grew up in Marietta, Ga., but now he spends his days in
Philadelphia at the renowned Curtis Institute, where musicians from
Leonard Bernstein to Lang Lang once honed their chops. Now Foley’s
learning his craft from famed composer-bassist Edgar Meyer.
...
Sphinx Finals Concert
Sphinx Symphony
2 p.m. Sunday
Orchestra Hall at The Max
3711 Woodward, Detroit
Tickets $10-$25
(313) 576-5111
dso.org
Chris Felcyn is a freelance writer and host of “The Well-Tempered Wireless,” airing midday on WRCJ-FM (90.9).
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