Senior Soloist Takes Heights High Stage April 26
April 24, 2019 -- Violinist Maria Tarnay has the distinct honor of being the only senior soloist in the Heights High Instrumental Music Department's Season Finale Concert on Friday, April 26. Maria will be accompanied by the orchestra as she plays the first two movements of Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, opus 14 (Allegro and Andante).
“It’s really more of a violin-orchestra duet than a solo,” said Maria of her chosen piece. “Neither part makes sense without the other and you really need both to get the full experience.”
Maria’s own high school experience has been very full indeed. As a member of the Instrumental Music Department, she’s played with the Heights High Symphony for four years, earning Second Principal as a freshman and serving as Concertmaster as a junior and senior, and with the school’s chamber ensemble program. Maria has also been part of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra where she earned Assistant Principal Second Violin and Assistant Concertmaster, and this year she served as Vice President for Service of Tri-M, a national honor society for musicians.
Somehow Maria also has time to compete on the high school swim team where she served as captain during her junior and senior years. In fact, she was working as an early morning lifeguard before school on the day she learned that she’d been selected as the solo Senior Soloist. “At first, I was sort of confused,” she said because she knew of so many talented students who had also auditioned. “But after about a week, the happiness set in. This has been something I’ve been working towards my whole life.”
Right now Maria feels confident, both about her part and about the orchestra’s part, but she knows “for a fact that about 20 minutes before I go on stage, the nervousness will definitely set in.” The senior, who has earned a full ride to Cleveland State University to study Biomedical Engineering, plans to continue playing in college. “I’m definitely not just going to throw music away,” she says of the passion she’s pursued since she was three. “I’ll join an orchestra somewhere or even just form a chamber group to keep music around.”
The public is invited to enjoy Maria’s solo and the rest of the very talented high school musicians at one of several spring concerts: the Season Finale Concert I featuring the Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Concert Orchestra on Wednesday April 24, at 7:30 pm and the Season Finale Concert II, featuring the Symphonic Winds, Heights High Symphony and Maria’s solo on Friday, April 26, at 7:30 pm. Both concerts will be preceded by performances by Chamber Ensembles at 6:30 pm and a reception will follow the Friday concert with entertainment by the Jazz Ensembles. The Jazz Ensembles will host their own concert on Friday, May 3 at 7:30 pm. All concerts will take place in the Heights High auditorium. Brett Baker directs the Bands, Daniel Heim directs the Orchestras, and Ben Ammon directs the Chamber Ensembles.
Maria was featured recently in a Heights Observer article by BOPO member Corbin Covault, from which some of this information was drawn.