Getting to Carnegie Hall
Cumberland’s Keaton Bergeron performs at Carnegie Hall
Local student to perform on big stage in Big Apple
CUMBERLAND – Seventeen-year-old flutist Keaton Bergeron, a senior at Beacon Charter High School for the Arts in Woonsocket, has performed on some pretty big stages, but they don’t get much bigger than Carnegie Hall in New York.
“It feels definitely unreal,” said Bergeron. “It’s very, very exciting for me and everyone in my orchestra really. We’ve been practicing since the beginning of the year.”
Bergeron performed in the storied concert hall as a member of Rhode Island Youth Orchestra Symphony on Friday.
A culinary arts student at Beacon, Bergeron has been playing flute in the symphony for two years, and with the affiliated Rhode Island Philharmonic Wind Ensemble for four. But Beacon Principal Michael Skeldon says her passion for music is matched only by her commitment to academics.
He says Keaton is one of the top-ranked seniors in Beacon’s Class of 2018.
Apparently, brains run in the family. Her brother, Timothy, was the valedictorian for Beacon High’s Class of 2016 and is now on the dean’s list at Boston University, where he’s studying arts education.
Keaton says she took up the flute when she was nine years old because her parents thought it was important to learn a musical instrument. There was a piano in the house, but she was inspired by a couple of babysitters who both played flute.
“I thought it was prettysounding,” she says.
Her parents may have gotten her started on the journey of musical discovery, but once they wound her up, that was it – Keaton was hooked.
“They never forced me to sit down and practice,” says Keaton. “I just kind of did it on my own because I enjoyed it.”
Under the tutelage of her music teacher, Pam Landry of Rick’s Music, Keaton says she gravitated toward playing classical music.
A few years ago, she decided to audition for the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School and was accepted as a member of the Wind Ensemble. Now she’s finishing up her second year with the Youth Orchestra Symphony, which has over a hundred members.
Friday’s performance at Carnegie Hall was part of the 2017 Viennese Masters Invitation and includes five orchestras from around the country showcasing works of Viennese composers. They performed works by Mozart, Strauss II, Bernstein, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff, according to Skeldon.
The Syracuse Youth Orchestra, the Southern California Youth Philharmonic, the Symphonic Youth Orchestra of Greater Indianapolis and the Columbus, MS Suzuki String Advanced Ensemble were also among the featured performers.
It was proud moment for her family, says Keaton’s mother, Amy Bergeron.
“It’s amazing to be able to do this when you’re 17 years old,” she says.
Amy says her daughter has wanted to play the flute since she was a little girl. “Which is funny, because we’ve always had a piano in the house,” she says.
Just a few weeks ago, Amy was surprised to hear her daughter announce that she was going to teach herself to play the family keyboards.
Despite her musical strengths, Keaton says she’s not sure if she’s heading for a career in music. When she goes to college, she’ll definitely minor in performance music, but she may focus on trying to earn a living doing something else.
“I always want to play the flute – it’s very important to me,” she says. “But I never want to be stressing out about music, like I need this to make me money. It’s like a stress reliever for me but I never want it to be the cause of stress.”