I only began playing the French Horn my Junior year of high school and auditioned for the PYS program entering my senior year, encouraged by Parker Kauffman, a member of the Youth Symphony. Entering the program I realized how much of a mistake I had made to not have started playing the french horn sooner in high school and joined such an amazing program sooner.
I was a part of the Symphonic Winds ensemble and could not believe the amount of dedication a large group of kids as young as 12 were devoting to music.
Nathan Johnston pushed us to become better at a quicker paced and proved to us that we all had an amazing musician inside of us.
As part of my first and last year of PYS I was blessed to be sponsored by Rotary International Clubs in Arizona to attend the PYS Tour in Germany! The trip was one of the greatest things that has happened to me.
I could not be more grateful to Keitaro, Dr. Temme, and Nathan for all they have done to create such an amazing atmosphere and establish a learning environment to flourish the dedication, creativity, and compassion of young musicians.