By Bethany Bray
This summer, Andover teenagers Jacob Shack and Katie von Braun spent several weeks eating, drinking and sleeping music. They wouldn't have it any other way.
Jacob, a 16-year-old viola player, and Katie, a 17-year-old violinist, participated in the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, an intensive program for student musicians held at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home in Lenox, Mass.
At BUTI, musicians stay in dorms on the grounds of Tanglewood and spend eight or more hours a day rehearsing, attending workshops and master classes and listening to other student and professional musicians perform.
The two Andover teens, students at Phillips Academy, are good friends and are used to practicing long hours on their instruments. Katie, who will be a senior at Phillips this fall, has played the violin since she was 9; Jacob, a junior, switched to viola from violin in sixth grade.
"I like the sound of the viola a lot better than the violin," he explained . "I like the lower registers a lot. It's actually one of the most important instruments in the orchestra. You need that middle voice."
Katie is the daughter of Christine and Curt von Braun; Jacob is the son of Marcy and William Schack.
They both participated in a two-week string quartet workshop at Tanglewood, and Jacob stayed an extra six weeks for an orchestra workshop, returning home on Monday, Aug. 11. For both Katie and Jacob, this was the first time participating in the BUTI.
"The level of talent there is great," said Jacob. "To be constantly surrounded by music in that atmosphere was awesome."
In the two-week string orchestra workshop, players learn two full string quartets and perform them for their peers at the end of the program. Besides being coached by professionals on their own two string quartets, musicians also sight-read other string quartets, and attend master classes and concerts.
Rehearsing and preparing music of that caliber for performance would normally take "months and months," said Katie.
"It was pretty intense," she said. "I've always loved to share music, and just being surrounded by music and hearing it performed was great. I came away loving it so much more."
In the six-week orchestra workshop, Jacob rehearsed and performed four times, once at the Hatch Shell in Boston.
Besides meeting young instrumentalists from all over the country in the program, Jacob and Katie also rubbed elbows with famous musicians who gave workshops, performances and coachings.
Members of the professional Muir and Enso string quartets did some coaching, and the teens got to attend a question-and-answer session with Midori, world-renowned violin soloist, nee Midori Goto.
"I really got a sense of the different styles there are of performing. You can be out there and flashy, like Midori, or more subtle, like in chamber music," Jacob said. "I learned to develop what I like about watching people play, and translate that to my own playing."
Both Katie and Jacob said they've considered studying music beyond high school, but aren't sure.
"I'm still too young to think about that," said Jacob of a career in music.
Tanglewood: did you know?
r Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, Mass., adds $50 million to the economy of the Berkshires each year. More than 300,000 people attend summer concerts there.
r Among major American symphony orchestras, more than 20 percent of the musicians and 30 percent of the first-chair players have attended the Tanglewood Music Center.
r Conductors among the Tanglewood Music Center's alumni include Claudio Abbado, Marin Alsop, Leonard Bernstein, Christoph von Dohnányi, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman.
r Singers who have attended the Tanglewood Music Center include Richard Cassilly, Phyllis Curtin, Justino Diaz, Sherrill Milnes, Leontyne Price, Cheryl Studer, Sanford Sylvan, Dawn Upshaw and Shirley Verrett
source: www.bso.org
