Young violinist wins prestigious scholarship
STILLWATER — Without knowing Emily Anderson’s age, it would be easy to mistake her for a seasoned violinist with the chops to play pieces from Bach or Sibelius as if she’s been playing for 50 years.
Minnesota Public Radio music host Steve Staruch had to remind his audience that Anderson was in 10th grade before featuring her rendition of Sibelius Concert Concerto on his radio show last week.
Anderson is the first-place winner of the Schubert Club Scholarship Competition this year, as the prestigious organization celebrates its 125th anniversary. The win also means she is the recipient of a $2,000 scholarship, which she intends to use to attend the Heifetz International Music Institute in New Hampshire this summer.
The scholarship wasn’t a new award for Anderson — she won the Schubert award two years ago in the junior division.
The 17-year-old sophomore at Stillwater High School has been playing the violin since she was 6. Unlike many teens her age, she already knows her life’s ambition — a decision that came when she was 10.
“I’m planning on going to a music conservatory and then I want a career as a professional musician,” Anderson said. “I’ve known for quite a while that I wanted to go into music, I think after I’d been playing for four years.”
Anderson divides her time between school, practicing for two to three hours a day, and performing with several regional orchestras. She’s played with the MacPhail Orchestra, the Bloomington Symphony and the Minnesota Youth Symphony’s orchestra.
“I think she’s an extremely talented young woman musically, as well as on the violin,” said Anderson’s violin teacher Lucinda Marvin. “She has a lot to say on the instrument and I think she has a beautiful stage presence and a lovely connection with the audience.”
Anderson began studying with Marvin almost a year ago when her regular teacher Mary West died last spring. The 97-year-old West was giving lessons almost up until the time of her death and was one of her biggest influences, she said. Her other inspiration comes from the classical musicians to which she listens.
“There are a lot of pieces that I either listen to or play, and I learn a lot from those and there’s also great professional musicians,” she said. “I can go to their concerts and listen to them and that’s very inspiring.”
It was being exposed to orchestras at an early age that influenced Anderson to begin playing, before her parents bought her first violin when she was 6.
“She delights in the practicing,” Marvin said. “And she records well, which is a special talent. It’s hard to record well; we always say the tape recorder is our best friend and our worst enemy because it doesn’t lie.”
Years from now after her musical education is finished, Anderson said she sees herself having a solo music career traveling the country playing the violin. She enjoys playing the violin, she says, because it offers her many ways to express music. She describes the violin as being one of “the closest instruments to the human voice.”
“I love performing, it’s one of my favorite parts of playing the violin,” she said. “Usually with a solo career you travel to different cities and perform, and that’s my goal.”
Emily Anderson is the daughter of Michael and Carole Anderson.
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