[Ohio-talk] Fw: Article from Cincinnati Enquirer Entertainment Life 2010 09 19

[Deborah Kendrick]

This is a very nice article that appeared in the Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer 
about Kyle.
Thought you'd all enjoy reading it.
Deborah

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NFB-NEWSLINE Online" <nfbnewsline at nfb.org>
To: "Deborah Kendrick" <dkkendrick at earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 5:58 PM
Subject: Article from Cincinnati Enquirer Entertainment Life 2010 09 19


Sightless violin soloist has advantage of perfect pitch     By Janelle 
Gelfand jgelfand at enquirer.com     Learning to play the violin is a difficult 
feat for anyone. But becoming an accomplished violinist without the benefit 
of sight may be the ultimate challenge. Kyle Conley, 20, of Fairfield, who 
is blind, will make his debut as soloist with the Blue Ash/Montgomery 
Symphony Orchestra on Sunday. He will perform the Allegro movement from J.S. 
Bach's Concerto in A Minor in a special concert led by conductor Michael 
Chertock at the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in 
North College Hill. The hard thing in that piece is really keeping your 
fingers and the bow in line with each other. Because there are rapidly 
moving 16th notes, and sometimes it can run away from you a little bit," 
says the violinist by phone from Wright State University, where he is a 
music education major. A student of the director of orchestral studies at 
Wright State, In-Hong Cha, who is known as "Maestro in a Wheelchair," Conley 
is currently working on Max Bruch's virtuoso showpiece, "Scottish Fantasy. 
He also loves Edward Elgar, Howard Hanson, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and 
Handel. Conley has never seen a musical score. At birth, he was a 23-week 
"preemie. He spent the first four-and-a-half months of his life at 
University and Cincinnati Children's Hospitals. But he is blessed with 
perfect pitch  - the ability to identify or reproduce pitches without 
external reference. His excellent ear allows him to repeat a phrase of music 
back, verbatim, after hearing it just once. It's like a photographic 
memory," says his former teacher, Laura Proffit, 45, of West Chester, 
concertmaster of the orchestra. To teach Conley a new work, Proffit would 
play a phrase and he would repeat it, taking each phrase back and forth, 
until he was able to play the entire piece. The process was not arduous, she 
says. It was more like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. He has an 
uncanny ability to hear something and just replicate it again. Even some of 
the best musicians I know could not do that at the level he could. Conley 
has studied Braille music, a massive undertaking that involves learning all 
of the musical symbols. It's tricky to read. I've gotten a lot better over 
the last several years," Conley says. One of his biggest challenges is 
playing in the orchestra at Wright State. He must not only memorize the 
music, but keep it all straight in his head. You're learning new pieces, and 
you've got a rehearsal twice a week, and it's like, whoa. You've got to be 
real on top of your game," he says. I remember I was thrown into the fire 
with (Beethoven's) Egmont Overture my first quarter. That's a work and a 
half in many different styles, and it's just a phenomenal piece to open your 
college career with. At age 4, Conley started piano lessons in a music 
therapy class with Paula Jordan at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind. 
It was a Saturday morning routine, from age 4 to 15, where we got together 
as either individuals or as a group (for lessons)," he says. At 9, he joined 
the Cincinnati Boychoir. He also got his first violin, three-quarter-size, 
to accommodate his then-small hands. I'd always been enthused by the violin, 
just to hear it. I just loved the sound of it, " he says. The multi-talented 
musician is also an accomplished arranger of music for school orchestras, 
and has done some conducting. And even though his voice outgrew the 
Boychoir, Conley still loves to sing. Recently, he sang the National Anthem 
at Great America Ball Park for the fourth time. That was the night that 
(Washington's rookie phenom) Stephen Strasburg pitched," he says. I'm a huge 
baseball enthusiast. . Nothing makes him nervous. The only thing I can do is 
just keep myself ready to play and keep my mind on the task ahead," he says. 
Conley's dream is to teach orchestra. But with cuts in the arts in schools 
across the country, he knows it's going to be tough to find a job. I'll take 
what I can get, but that would be my preferred position," he says. Proffit 
predicts great things for him. He brings a positive attitude to everything 
he does," she says. I think wherever he finds himself, he will 
unquestionably be involved in music. Additional Facts   If you go   What: 
Music on the Lawn. Blue Ash/Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, Michael Chertock, 
conductor; Kyle Conley, violinist; William Henry Caldwell, soloist When: 5 
p.m. today  Where: Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 
North College Hill Admission: Free. Refreshments will be available. 
513-522-3860, www.clovernook.org; 513-232-0949, www.bamso.org. Information 
for those who use ACCESS, ACB or ITN: 513-771-1126.       .

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