Talent dawns in season finale

Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Libbey Van Dyke grows into her role with the orchestra.

The closing concert of the Bainbridge Orchestra’s 2004-05 season marks the opening of a young career.

Bainbridge High School sophomore Libbey Van Dyke, who joined the orchestra this year, plays Vivaldi’s Concerto in B Minor for Four Violins, along with Tom Monk, Larry Telles and Justine Jeanotte.

But the finale comes without the conductor who has been Van Dyke’s violin teacher, Sandi Schwarz, who moved to Mexico and is replaced in the interim by Seattle conductor David Upham.

“We knew that it was coming because, she sort of warned us,” Van Dyke said, “that she would have to leave.”

Before Schwarz left, she introduced Van Dyke to a new string teacher, Steve Bryant. He is the latest in a chain of mentors who have moved Van Dyke from a kindergartener searching for the right notes to a self-assured performer.

Van Dyke, who grew up on Bainbridge, was musical even as a toddler, her mother recalls.

“Clearly she wanted to play an instrument,” Laura Van Dyke said. “So I kept saying, ‘let’s play piano.’”

But at age 4, Libbey expressed a preference for the violin. She began a year later, taking lessons from island Suzuki teacher Beverly Sortland.

When Sortland left for England two years later, Van Dyke began study with Seattle teacher Kim Zabelle. Next came Sandi Schwarz, a violinist highly regarded for her knowledge of early music. Although Schwarz didn’t take many private students, when the 11 year-old Van Dyke auditioned, Schwarz agreed to teach her.

“I learned a lot from her,” Van Dyke said. “Musical styling rather than the technical stuff.”

At age 13, Van Dyke got her first full-size violin. She had advanced enough to no longer be completely consumed by playing accurately; now she had to learn to shape the musical phrases, and play with expression.

“If I played in rhythm and in tune, that had seemed like enough for me,” she said. “When I transferred over to Sandi, it was more like: how can you add different elements, or how can you make the bow sound different?”

Van Dyke learned that turning the bow more on its side would make the sound light and airy, that a slight roll of her wrist when she bowed, rather than keeping her whole arm rigid, would make the tone smoother through the long notes.

Schwarz emphasized dynamics, as well, and encouraged Van Dyke to “detach” enough while playing to begin to be analytical.

“She made me listen to myself,” Van Dyke said. “That wasn’t something I had done before. With violin, you’re concentrated just trying to get the notes right, because there are no frets.”

Schwarz also instilled in the young musician appreciation for early music.

“I like Baroque music a lot,” Van Dyke said. “She definitely started that in me. Before, it didn’t really make sense, but now I know how to play more of it.”

Still, Van Dyke says her taste is eclectic, and she can equally enjoy playing contemporary composition with a large orchestra. Through Zabelle, who conducted the Seattle Youth Symphony, Van Dyke had been introduced to group performance. She would travel to Shoreline High School every Saturday to rehearse with the group.

The experience was somewhat intimidating, Van Dyke recalls, because an audition determined how close to the front of the string section – how high in the hierarchy of violins – she would sit for a particular concert.

“It’s good and it’s bad, because I get really competitive, but I also take it seriously and practice a lot, too,” she said.

In one sense, playing with a large group was easy; it gave her a way to “hide out” when unsure of her part. Now she is a lot more exposed, playing solo or in quartet arrangements as she matures.

A key moment in her development, Van Dyke recalls, was trying for a Bainbridge Music and Art scholarship when she was in middle school. Playing solo to win her first scholarship from the venerable island organization that has funded scholarships for more than a half century, made her feel that she was contributing to her own music education.

“For the first time I felt that all the money my parents had spent on me wasn’t going to waste,” she said. “It made me feel good.”

Van Dyke, who is considering studying medicine, isn’t sure she wants a career as a violinist, but she does know that music will play a role for her in the future.

“I’d like to play my whole life,” she said. “I know that.”

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Season finale

The Bainbridge Orchestra closes the 2004-05 season with performances at 7:30 p.m. April 30 and 4 p.m. May 1 at the Playhouse. The concert includes selections from Verdi’s opera “Nabucco”; Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake; and Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings. Tickets are $15 for adults, $9 for seniors/students, and available at the Playhouse; charge by phone at 842-8569, or online at www.theplayhouse.org.