Monday Musicale raises funds for local student scholarships

by ASHLEY MILLER

for the Sequim Gazette

Every famous musician gets their “start” somewhere.

For three young musicians living on the North Olympic Peninsula, that beginning might be with Monday Musicale.

A group of musicians are donating their time and talent to perform during a scholarship fundraising concert – organized by Monday Musicale – 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7. All proceeds and donations raised during the event go directly to the scholarship fund.

In the past the group has donated about $6,000 each year to three students in the Sequim and Port Angeles areas, extending west toward Joyce and Forks. Recipients are chosen during a springtime competition. Eligible students must be high school seniors – public, private or home school – who plan to major or minor in music.

“We are giving back to the community as a whole and to our future leaders,” said Dianne McIntosh, Monday Musicale publicity chairman.

“Most students who participate in music at school have high grade-point averages and are smart and driven,” she said.

“As a whole, they are valuable to our community and it’s in our best interest to support them as much as we can.”

Sequim musician and mistress of ceremonies Nancy Beier attributes much of her musical career to a scholarship that helped pay for her education.

“My first year in college was with a music club scholarship and I feel duty bound to repay those ladies for helping me 50 years ago,” said Beier, who had a 30-year international career as an opera singer, performed on Broadway and is a past president of Monday Musicale.

In addition to giving back, Beier said she enjoys organizing the fundraising concert because it’s the “best concert in town.”

“Every year we say it can’t be better than the last but somehow it always is,” she said.

Meet the performers

? Ria Honda, 10, started playing the violin at the age of 5 in Tokyo and moved to Bellevue in 2006. Her accomplishments include second place in the Primary Division of Seattle Music Teachers Association’s Simon-Fiset Violin Competition, serving as concertmaster of the Seattle Youth Symphony’s Symphonette Orchestra and placing first in the solo division and second in the concerto division of the Performing Arts of the Eastside Festival.

Despite her success, Honda is a regular fifth-grader whose favorite subjects in school are math and science. When she’s not practicing violin, she’s enjoys reading, playing video games, shopping, talking to friends and traveling with her family.

? Rosemary Brauminger received her musical education in piano, organ and voice at the University of Toronto. She’s performed widely in solo and chamber recitals in Ontario, Canada; Boston, Mass., and Washington. She’s the retired music director of the First Baptist Church and Community Chorus in Port Angeles.

? Fred Thompson started studying cello at age 7. In his high school years, he attended Interlochen National Musical Camp in Michigan and performed with the community symphony orchestra in Wisconsin. Later, he studied English and music at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. After teaching in Utah

for four years, he and his family moved to Port Angeles where he took a teaching position at Peninsula College. Thompson is a longtime player in the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra.

? Gary McRoberts began his piano studies in Michigan at the age of 4, started playing at church when he was 8 and began teaching at 15 upon receipt of a teaching certificate from Sherwood Music School in Chicago. McRoberts continued teaching choral music in public schools until his retirement in 2003. Now he leads the Sequim Community Christmas Chorus.

? Anne Krabill is the principal oboist in the Port Angeles Symphony and Chamber orchestras and the Northwest Symphony in Seattle. She’s performed with the Peninsula Dance Theater Orchestra, the Sooke Philharmonic in British Columbia and the 82nd Airborne Division Band in North Carolina. Krabill lives in Port Townsend where her family operates an oboe and bassoon reeds manufacturing business. Her husband, David, is a retired bassoonist and all their four children are accomplished young musicians.

? Johanna Jacobson start-ed playing the oboe seven years ago and studies with Krabill. Last year, she won the symphony’s Young Artist Junior Competition. Two years ago, she traveled to New York with the Port Angeles High School Orchestra and performed at Carnegie Hall. Jacobson also enjoys singing and dancing and has performed in several plays, including “Peter Pan,” “Robinson Crusoe,” Jane

Austin’s “Emma” and “The Hiding Place.”