FROM STREET to symphony
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra violinist Kaine Newton is heading south for auditions at prestigious music colleges.
In November, Kaine Newton — her name is pronounce kye- nay — played a series of concerts with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She was 17. She played second violin, and had been hired for the symphony’s substitute list.
“As far as I know,” said VSO concert master Dale Barltrop, who hired Newton after she auditioned for him, “she’s the youngest musician ever to play with the orchestra. Most of the substitutes we take on are professionals or college students, and I believe she just graduated from high school. She’s a remarkable young violinist and we were really impressed with her audition.”
The VSO was not Ms. Newton’s first professional gig. She began playing for money when she was eight. Her first recital was on the seawall in West Vancouver, busking.
“You can make pretty good money doing it,” she said, “especially when you’re young and cute. I guess people saw this little eight- year- old playing violin and thought it was sweet.”
She is now 18 — her birthday arrived soon after the VSO performances — and she continues to busk, though her venues have changed. She can be found playing her classical repertoire downtown now, on Robson Street in front of the HMV store, and on Alberni Street in front of Tiffany’s. She makes about $ 50 on a good day, she said, and $ 30 on a slow day.
Next month, she leaves for the U. S. to audition for spots in four of North America’s most prestigious musical colleges — the Curtis Institute of Music, in Philadelphia; the Colburn Conservatory of Music, in Los Angeles; the New England Conservatory of Music, in Boston; and the Cleveland Institute of Music, in Cleveland. The auditions are gruelling, and whirlwind — Cleveland on Feb. 12, Philadelphia on Feb. 14, Los Angeles on Feb. 20, and Boston on Feb. 21.
“They’re the major schools that people wanting to go into music apply to,” Newton said, “but they’re pretty tough to get accepted to.”
Once accepted, though, a student at a school like Curtis has joined a privileged elite. It not only takes the best and brightest, but the school’s generous endowments allow it to provide tuition and room and board to them for free. Competition is fierce. Barltrop, the VSO’S concert master, knows this personally.
“Curtis really attracts the cream of the crop,” he said. “But it’s very difficult to get into. I myself auditioned for Curtis and wasn’t accepted.”
Newton will be auditioning on her own violin, which, compared to the thoroughbreds of the violin world, is a workhorse. It cost $ 3,500. She doesn’t know its maker, or age, though she thinks it’s around 150 years old. Its varnish is so worn it’s piebald, and there is a deep gouge on its face next to the fretboard. A few weeks ago, she had to get a crack in it repaired and the sound post readjusted. The repairs have altered its sound — it’s lost some of its resonance in the lower register, Newton said — but she remains deeply attached to it: When she brought the violin out to show me, she cradled it with the same tenderness she might a baby. It looked a part of her.
“I have a friend that is already going to Curtis, and her violin cost $ 80,000. Will my ( violin’s recent repairs) affect my chances of getting in? I don’t know ... but I don’t think so. I think I can play around it.”
Her teacher, Nancy Dinovo, believes Newton can do it, too, despite the odds. One year, she said, 97 applicants vied for three spaces at Curtis.
“It’s highly competitive, but she has a high level of dexterity. She certainly has the talent to be in the top schools.”
For those of you wanting to catch a glimpse of that talent, you can watch a recital of hers on Youtube, at http:// www. youtube. com/ watch? v= Gdccjk XLHRE& feature= related.
Ms. Newton’s next live performance — which will include works by Bach, Beethoven, Paganini and Schumann — will be a week Saturday, at noon, in front of the HMV store at the corner of Robson and Burrard, weather permitting. Donations will be welcome.