Young musician debuts in PBS special

By Jomay Steen, Journal staff | Friday, May 02, 2008

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A teenage Rapid City violinist recently took his 12-member ensemble through its paces for the 13-part Public Broadcasting Service series “From the Top at Carnegie Hall.”

Concertmaster Andre Hafner, formerly of Rapid City Central High School, led the Interlochen Arts Academy Chamber Orchestra through “Simple Gifts” from Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” not once, but four times to capture the best musical performance for the PBS special.

Last month in Carnegie’s Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, the ensemble played in front of a packed house of 600 music lovers, which included Hafner’s mother, Rebecca, and older sister, Caitlin. Because Hafner was in the middle of his school’s spring break when the concert date arrived, Interlochen paid to fly the young musician from his Rapid City home to New York City.

Hafner, 16, didn’t have any time to get nervous before the performance, but he did have a chance to take in the stage of one of Carnegie’s more intimate performance halls.

“The one we played in was very good for recording. There were wires all over the place. It was kind of crazy, but the acoustics were very good,” he said.

Hafner said the camera crew did multiple shots of the ensemble at play. This required the musicians to play their selection four times.

“It was live, but with multiple tries,” he said.

Erin MacCurtain of “From the Top’s” Boston marketing department said the recording was made for the second season of its television show and not for the radio program, which airs locally at 4 p.m. Sundays on FM radio stations KBHE on 89.3 or KPSD on 97.1.

MacCurtain said the March 21 recording of the Interlochen Arts Academy Chamber ensemble will be broadcast on the second season of “From the Top at Carnegie Hall,” which returns in mid-May. “If your public broadcast station does not pick it up, you can see it online at pbs.org,” she said.

In his first year of boarding school as a junior at Interlochen Arts Academy at Interlochen, Mich., Hafner has learned to adjust to living without the care and supervision of his parents. When his computer crashed, he had to find someone to fix it rather than depend upon family to take care of it at home. When he discovered that he and his roommate mixed about as well as oil and vinegar, Hafner set about finding a new roommate—a fellow violinist from China named Kenny.

Yet, the focus on music makes all of the difference for this young musician.

In the interim, he has learned to juggle his music classes and rehearsals with regular classroom schoolwork while squeezing in his meals, homework, private lessons and 1-1/2 hours of daily practice on the violin. Laundry is scheduled for Thursdays.

If that weren’t enough, he and his 500 high school classmates have optional tutorials at night. “They’re optional, but everyone goes,” he said. “They end at about 9:30 p.m.”

Along with his physics, advanced placement chemistry, music theory and chamber orchestra, Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse,” James Joyce’s “Dubliners” and Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” line his bookshelf as part of his modern European literature class.

“I’m used to doing homework, but it took a while to get a balance to do everything. It took quite a bit of time because if I focused on music, my homework suffered. I’d focus on classes, my practice suffered, but I found a balance,” he said.

Because he is away from home, he enjoys his vacations and time with his twin brother, Ian, and older sister, Caitlin, and parents. He said he has had to deal with homesickness, but only after coming home. Because he had to work so hard to adjust to his new schedule, his new school and its routines, thinking about home was crowded out by the reality of finding his way around campus and dealing with his new surroundings.

“It was just all about getting used to that kind of schedule. But once I came home then went back to Interlochen, all those feelings (of homesickness) started. You realize the year wasn’t over yet,” he said.

But you get use to it, he added.

“It’s all a part of growing up,” he said.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.