06-27-2024 Howard - Flipbook - Page 48
The
beginning
stages
Ellicott City violinist to join
National Youth Orchestra
at Carnegie Hall,
tour South America
BY MARY CAROLE MCCAULEY Howard Magazine
f I may suggest, make your vibrato a little bit wider,” music
teacher Ronald Mutchnik told Olivia Cai.
It was the 18-year-old Ellicott City student’s final music
lesson before she joins the National Youth Orchestra this
summer at Carnegie Hall, where she will perform under the
baton of former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin
Alsop and tour South America.
So Mutchnik wanted Cai to be at her best in such impressive company.
He thought she might have a shot at being selected as the orchestra’s
concertmaster, the player who helps the conductor guide the orchestra
through the music.
“Even though ‘Scheherazade’ is imploring the sultan, don’t be too
emotional at first,” Mutchnik told Cai. “Take that passage a little bit
slower. Change the color so that it is a little thicker and less brilliant.”
Cai began the passage from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”
again at a more stately pace. The music emanating from the violin was
still lush and full of magic, but now it sounded more self-possessed. This
was a violin in full command of its considerable powers, a violin capable
of enchanting the most powerful potentate in the land and persuading
him to do its bidding.
“Very good,” Mutchnik told Cai. “You’ve got it now.”
This will be quite a summer for Cai, a recent graduate of Marriotts Ridge
High School. Following a family trip to China in June to visit relatives,
she will perform in New York’s Carnegie Hall in July and play alongside
“I
Olivia Cai, third from left, after a performance last summer during 2023 NYO2
at Carnegie Hall in New York. NYO2 is a free summer program for orchestral
players ages 14–17 created by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. PHOTO
COURTESY OF FADI KHEIR
48
| Summer 2024 | howardmagazine.com
