How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Ask Harrison Linsey. The Magnolia resident and Garfield High School sophomore, will be making a repeat visit to the famous New York City venue in June to perform with a select national high-school honors orchestra.
Linsey was one of four oboists and the only English horn player selected to perform. He was just at Carnegie Hall in March when he performed with his high school symphony orchestra.
Linsey had sailed through a string of competitions that led him to the fabled destination for entertainers.
In April, Linsey won the Oboe-English Horn category during the 2010 Washington State Solo and Ensemble competition in Ellensburg - successfully defending last year's title when he performed Mozart's Oboe Concerto.
Linsey earned the right to compete in Ellensburg when he earned to top score in his category at the Elliott Bay regional solo competition in March. Last year, he won the same regional and state competitions.
His choice of oboe, was not of love, but necessity.
"I was never that tall or big and so I couldn't play saxophone or trombone," he said. "I don't have big hands." That narrowed it down to the oboe or maybe the clarinet, but he didn't want to play something 30 other students would be playing along side him at Lowell Elementary School. So, oboe it was. Clearly, it was a good choice.
Since then, the 16-year-old master has performed solos at the Marcello Oboe Concerto, Benjamin Britten's Metamorphoses, was the guest artist with the Bellevue Chamber Chorus during its December holiday concert, and has been the principal oboe for Seattle Youth Symphony, Academy Chamber Orchestra, Garfield Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Woodwind Quintet.
At his up-coming performance at Carnegie Hall, Linsey and the all-star cast of student musicians will play music from Copeland, Gershwin Bernstein and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, the latter about which he is particularly excited.
"It's one of my favorites," Linsey said. "It has a lot of interesting history with Stalin sensoring him. Stalin, it is said, was afraid that Shostakovich was making fun of the Bolsheviks with his music. With his fifth symphony, Linsey added, "It's hard to tell if he was making fun of Stalin or writing a masterful piece."
Linsey, whose current teacher is Dan Williams, wants to continue his training at The Julliard School just a few subway stops from Carnegie Hall, or the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.[[In-content Ad]]
