Tuesday, January 18, 2000
Young musician 'a showman'
Walnut Hills senior, chamber group, to play Carnegie Hall, China
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Breana Bauman (17) practices with the school orchestra at Walnut Hills High.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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Strolling through the Plaza del Sol in Madrid in 1998, orchestra conductor Ken Welsh heard beautiful music. But it wasn't a Spaniard spinning the melodies. Breana Bauman, touring Spain with Mr. Welsh's Walnut Hills High School Orchestra, had taken out her violin for an impromptu street performance.
Mr. Welsh was immediately impressed with her business acumen: Her instrument case, propped open on the ground, brimmed with spare change tossed by passers-by. But it was her confidence that convinced him of her future success.
“She's a showman,” said Mr. Welsh, who has taught at Walnut Hills for 24 years. “A lot of kids will shy away from that, but Breana jumps at the chance. She has what it takes to make it.”
The 17-year-old Madisonville girl already is on her way.
She'll play at New York's Carnegie Hall in April with Walnut Hills' orchestra, which was selected from more than 50 nationwide that applied to perform.
In March, she'll tour China with the Starling Chamber Orchestra, young musicians assembled and coached by musicians with the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).
She also plays in the Cincinnati Youth Symphony.
Besides Spain, she's already performed in France, England and Australia.
When she was a freshman, she took top honors and snagged a $5,000 scholarship at the Overture Awards, the region's largest arts scholarship competition.
She's now a senior and plans to audition at Julliard, Oberlin, CCM and the Curtis Institute. She hopes to build a career in music as a performer.
Her interest in music didn't come from her family. She jokes that her parents are tone-deaf, and her sister rides horses.
Rather, she discovered her talent at age 5 when she enrolled in the Suzuki program at North Avondale Montessori School.
In recent years, she abandoned her other interests — ballet, choir and soccer — to focus on the violin.
She now plays a French violin made by famed violin-maker Henri Derezey in the 1760s and practices three hours a day — six hours on Saturdays.
“It seems like a lot, but it's pretty average for serious violinists,” she said. “It's one of those professions that you can't decide when you're 25 that you want to do it. You start really young and work really hard; otherwise, you'll never make it.
“I feel like I've known forever that I want to be a violinist,” she said.
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