Passion, gratitude mark winners of Young Artists Competition

PORT ANGELES — Every Monday night, 16-year-old Erin Hennessey drives to Tacoma and back.

Hennessey spends an hour there with a doctor — Maria Sampen, a doctor of music who is one of her biggest fans.

Hennessey is the winner of the 2012 Young Artists Competition, a contest sponsored by the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 28.

Symphony conductor Adam Stern and other veteran musicians voted her the top player in the field of 11 contestants from across the North Olympic Peninsula and awarded her a $500 cash prize.

While Hennessey won the competition for musicians age 22 and younger, pianist Wei-Yan Fu, 13, topped the Junior Young Artists Competition for students in ninth grade or below.

As the winner in the field of 12 competitors, he took home $250 in cash.

Passion, gratitude

Both teens are striking in two respects: unabashed passion and gratitude.

Fu won with his performance of Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat, a melody he said astonished him from the first moment he heard it.

“I love music, and I always will,” said Fu, who has been playing piano since first grade.

He started out with teachers Thelma and Richard McCoy and now studies with Kayla Dyment.

“She has taught me a lot about shaping my music,” he said.

Fu, an eighth-grader at Stevens Middle School, also took up the cello four years ago.

Hennessey is both a violinist and a fiddler: She’s concertmistress of the Port Angeles High School Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Black Diamond Fiddle Club, a Port Angeles band.

“She has something really special. And she works hard. Those two things go hand in hand,” said Sampen, a professor at Tacoma’s University of Puget Sound and a violinist who performs as a soloist all over the world.

Musical future

Hennessey’s musical future is wide open, Sampen added.

“When Erin performs, she just lights up. There’s a new element that comes into her playing . . . she is very passionate, very sincere.”

Another thing that stands out about this teenager: She’s grateful to be a young musician in Port Angeles.

“In such a small area, we are extremely lucky,” Hennessey said, “to benefit from the Port Angeles Symphony and the expertise of our private teachers.”

The Port Angeles High School junior studied with Jo Dee Ahmann in Port Angeles for nine years before starting lessons with Sampen in Tacoma.

After the competition, she expressed her gratitude to Ahmann, Sampen and Port Angeles High orchestra director Ron Jones “for their expertise and wisdom.”

Teaching Hennessey — who started lessons at age 4 — “was my delight,” said Ahmann, adding that Hennessey is a natural — yet humble about it.

Violinist’s showpiece

For the competition, Hennessey chose Ravel’s “Tzigane,” a showpiece for violinists.

“It’s flashy and full of technical tricks,” she said.

“I heard it performed when I was younger, and I was thrilled to get the opportunity to play it myself.”

After graduation next year, Hennessey hopes to go either to a music conservatory or a college with an affiliated school of music — to pursue degrees in both music and biology.

As for that $500 in cash, she’s saving it for after high school.

“I hope to spend it, after I graduate, on a trip to Ireland to study Irish traditional music,” Hennessey said.

Other standouts in the Young Artists Competitions include pianists Jeremy Choe, 14; Curry Winborn, 18; Tarah Erickson, 17, and Cole Urnes, 15; and double bassist Michael Helwick, 14, who received honorable mentions.

For more information about the contests and other Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra activities, phone the symphony office at 360-457-5579 or visit www.PortAngelesSymphony.org.

________

Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.

More in Life

ISSUES OF FAITH: Finding faith that there is ‘somebody out there’

I’VE ALWAYS HAD a passion for music, especially ’80s music. Back in… Continue reading

The Rev. Larry Schellink will present the program at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Schellink is the minister of record at Unity in the Olympics, 2917 E. Myrtle Ave.
Weekend program scheduled for Unity in the Olympics

The Rev. Larry Schellink will lead a discussion regarding… Continue reading

The Rev. Pam Douglas-Smith.
Speaker set at Unity in Port Townsend for weekend service

The Rev. Pam Douglas-Smith will present “The Twelve Conditions… Continue reading

The Rev. Bruce Bode
Bode scheduled for OUUF weekend program

The Rev. Bruce Bode will present “Basic Morality and… Continue reading

Matthew Nash / Olympic Peninsula News Group
Jennifer Scott of the Hudson Valley region in New York with her niece Calliope Scott of Denver walk the lavender fields of Jardin du Soleil. Scott said she loves lavender. Last week was their first time visiting a lavender farm.
Lavender weekend to bring concerts, food and music

Festivities set across Peninsula from Friday through Sunday

John Goar speaks to a group of visitors before leading them on a moonlit hike up Hurricane Hill for a tour of the constellations. Goar is a volunteer who leads the full moon hikes and dark sky telescope tours that are part of the astronomy program at Hurricane Ridge. (Paula Hunt/Peninsula Daily News)
Hurricane Ridge astronomy program reveals treasures

Volunteer-run tour guides visitors at Hurricane Ridge

Karen Griffiths
Rainshadow Equine Sanctuary Team’s Debi Pavlich-Boaz leads Paliday calmly over a blue tarp as part of his daily training routine. She worked with the Yakima Sheriff’s Department to capture the mini stallion when he was running alongside a freeway, deftly evading capture. Without her help, and an offer to take him home, the sheriff’s department planned on taking the then-untrained pony to a local holding pen to await transport to a slaughter house in Canada. Instead, Paliday is now happily living the rest of days out as a gelding at the sanctuary.
HORSEPLAY: Peninsula animal rescue, shelters need our help

DID YOU KNOW that most of our local horse, dog and cat… Continue reading

A GROWING CONCERN: Get your garden schooled on Nutrients 101

AS WE MOVE through July and our yard and gardens are flourishing,… Continue reading

ISSUES OF FAITH: Truth and honesty important in leadership

THROUGHOUT THE TORAH, we are taught the importance of honesty and justice.… Continue reading

Doug Benecke will be joined by Sallie Harrison for special music at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Program set for weekend service

Doug Benecke will present “Play Ball!” at 10:30 a.m.… Continue reading

The Rev Craig Vocelka will present “Listening for the Whisper” at 10:00 am this Sunday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1020 Jefferson Street.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church plans service

The Rev. Craig Vocelka will present “A Thankful, Generous… Continue reading

The Rev. Pam Douglas-Smith.
Speaker set at Unity in Port Townsend for weekend service

The Rev. Pam Douglas-Smith will present “Divine Feeding of… Continue reading