Young people who are serious about their hobbies may dream of taking a curtain call on Broadway or playing professional football in the Super Bowl.
For many musicians, this dream takes them to Carnegie Hall in New York City. Orchestra members and vocalists work hard to earn a chance to appear on the famous stage, and one local student will get that opportunity in just a couple of months.
Jacksonville violinist Dustin Yoder has been selected for the 2015 High School Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall.
In February, he will go to New York for about a week to prepare for the Honors Orchestra performance.
A senior at Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School in Little Rock, Yoder studies violin with Eric Hayward of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and with Edith Ellis at Parkview.
Yoder first showed an interest in the violin at the end of his third-grade year, and he has been playing ever since. Throughout that time, he has performed as part of the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra, the ASYO String Quartet, the North Little Rock Assembly of God Orchestra, the Wildwood Academy of Music and the Arts Ensemble, and the Arkansas all-state and all-region orchestras.
The violin, Yoder said, gives him the ability to infuse his emotions into musical expression.
“You can really express with the violin,” he said. “I love that you can put your feelings out there.”
Unlike some other stringed instruments, such as the guitar, there are no frets or indicators on the violin where a violinist needs to put his or her fingers on the strings. While it takes work, it is not difficult for someone to learn the correct positions, and Yoder said he enjoys that mental and physical training.
“It’s a bit of a challenge,” he said. “There is a lot of muscle memory involved, and it can be complicated. But when you get it down, there’s a sense of accomplishment.”
Yoder auditioned in the fall for the Honors Performance Series and was accepted after a review by the Honors Selection Board. He, along with other students from around the world, will study with Jeffrey Grogan, then perform for the public on Feb. 22. The group will play the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and the Overture from West Side Story, by Leonard Bernstein.
“Being selected to the Honors Performance Series is something each finalist should be extremely proud of accomplishing,” Morgan Smith, program director of the series, said in a press release. “We process more than 10,000 nominations annually, selecting only the most-talented performers applying on an international level. Working with these conductors and performing at Carnegie Hall is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that these student musicians never forget.”
Yoder has already met some of his co-musicians online, and he is excited to network and make new friends at the event.
When he graduates from high school, Yoder said, he plans to study music and pursue a career as a violinist. Currently, he is weighing his options between two in-state schools — the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Arkansas — and two out-of-state schools — the University of Alabama and the University of North Texas.
In college, Yoder said, he plans to minor in physics so he can have a backup option in case it takes some time to get a full-time job as a musician.
“Physics applies to everything around us,” he said. “It will work hand in hand with the music.”
Yoder is currently raising funds for his trip to New York through the online fundraising website GoFundMe. To give, visit www.gofundme.com/dustinyoder.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.