Once upon a
time there was a five year old boy who came home from kindergarten one day and
told his mom that he was going to play the violin. His friend Hillary (pictured on the left) had brought her violin to
school and played “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” for the class. But his mom told him, “no” because she didn’t
know anything about the violin.
The boy’s
mom relented to his pleas and found him a wonderful teacher named, Mrs. Meacham. After months of practicing hard his teacher
told the boy he could play in a concert.
This made the boy very happy and he asked his mom to buy him a tuxedo to
wear. (She convinced him it was ok to
wear a suit.)
When he was
six, he got a scholarship to attend a violin institute for the first time. He met some very nice teachers from all over
the world and made new friends. He also
discovered he loves to fiddle because you get to play fast.
In the fall
of 2001, the boy got to play in a big concert held in the tabernacle on temple
square. There he got to play “Ode to Joy”
with over 1800 other Suzuki musicians.
The boy
began to play concerts at retirement homes and for family and friends and he learned
it made people happy when he played his violin for them. He still does dozens of free mini-concerts
each year.
One day, at
his violin lesson, when he was very young the boy told his teacher, Mrs.
Meacham, that he had a dream he was playing as part of big orchestra. When the boy got good enough his teacher
suggested he audition for the Lyceum Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Kayson
Brown. He was 13 years old when he
started with the orchestra. (And he got
to wear a tuxedo in every concert.)
After a concert with Alex Boye
The boy did indeed
love playing with the orchestra and he got to play in many very cool concerts
over the 5 years he was a member. The
orchestra even got to make a you tube video with the Piano Guys and they won “Best
of State” 4 years in a row.
When the boy
was about to graduate from the Suzuki program, Mrs. Meacham gave him some sad
news. She was retiring from being a
violin teacher. She said the only
teacher she would trust to keep teaching him was Shauna Davies, who even though
she didn’t have any openings at the time took him on as a student. He has studied with her for over four years.
And then the
boy grew older. And he graduated from high school. And he made plans to attend BYU and study
engineering. He knew he would need to
study really hard to be an engineer some day and so he decided he would need to
take a break from playing his violin so much.
But before he did this he decided to do one more concert where he could
show what he has learned and play for all of the people who have supported him
in his musical journey.
Nathan and Graig playing Navarra (a duet)
Jennifer and Jessica were told the dress for the evening was casual and then when they arrived everyone else was dressed up. It was all good. We were glad they were there to support Graig.
Jayne Galloway did a fabulous job accompanying Graig. He also did two master classes with her to get ready for the recital.
There were over 40 people who came to watch the recital on a busy June evening. They were all very generous with their praise for the concert.
Graig and Shauna after the concert.
Shauna said that the music Graigry chose to play in his recital was the equivalent of two college level senior recitals because the songs were so difficult. She talked about his love to play "fast" and how she hoped his mission will mellow him out a little and inspire him to play some "slow" songs too.
