Please join us on Sunday, Dec. 2 at St. John Lutheran Church, when the award will be presented to our first-ever scholarship recipient. We invite all youth who attend our concerts to participate in “Music Matters”
Pianist Pauline Martin believes Detroit’s rich cultural landscape to be one of America’s best-kept secrets. Now in her seventh season as Artistic Director of Chamber Soloists of Detroit, she is intent on fulfilling its mission statement to “advance the global image of the city once known as the “Paris of the West,” starting with a European tour in the 1919-20 concert season.
Chamber Soloists of Detroit is further committed to showcasing young artists whose talents were nurtured in Detroit and Southeastern Michigan, presenting them in collaboration with internationally known performers.
On the local front, Artistic Director Pauline Martin is delighted to see her audience base growing, given the large number of classical music offerings in the area, many of whom often choose to feature more uncontroversial – therefore “safe” – programs and venues to attract younger listeners. Active as a dedicated teacher throughout her performing career, she has a different perspective on programming. “There is a misperception that we need to ‘entertain’ our young people to engage them.” But whether in her studio or at Chamber Soloists of Detroit concerts, she notes “… more often than not, young listeners are more likely to cite new, even avant-garde, works as their favorite pieces, often asking if they can play them someday. They want to be challenged, not bored!”
Dearborn attorney Zane Hatahet could not agree more. The newest member to CSD’s Board of Directors, he credits his childhood exposure to music as a piano student of the late Maxine Zeitz for much of his success. His idea to offer (and personally fund) scholarships for Music Matters, an essay contest for young listeners, is just one of many charitable causes he has committed to as his own remarkable career progresses. “There will always be competitions for serious young students, but this essay contest seeks instead to promote a greater appreciation of the live classical music experience among young listeners and aspiring performers alike.”
Details of the contest are simple:
Young concert attendees who are 18 years of age and under are invited to submit essays of 250 words or more to Zane Hahahet (zhatahet@gmail.com), articulating the impact that classical music, experienced live, has had on their lives and why classical music matters in today’s world.
Zane and his wife and fellow Board member, Sandra Hatahet, plan to generously award up to three cash scholarships for winning submissions at subsequent subscription concerts.
Mirroring the balance she has always sought as a performer, this initiative is particularly meaningful to Pauline Martin, whose passion for teaching took flight when (at age 15) she took over students on her mother’s waiting list. At Indiana University, Bloomington, her advanced keyboard and music theory skills earned her Assistant Instructor positions as both an undergraduate and graduate piano performance major, studying with living legend, Menahem Pressler. She had her first college teaching appointment at the age of 22 at Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia, moving on to complete a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan with a teaching assistantship in piano. Adjunct teaching duties at Oakland, Wayne State and Michigan State Universities (including one year as director of the entire Piano Pedagogy program at Michigan State University) allowed her to continue an active performance schedule while balancing her role as the mother of her two sons – Erik, now a professional cellist in Germany and Leif, a computer programmer and software developer in Montreal.
Bottom line? “We don’t need more research to show us that our youth need classical music in their lives.” One eleven-year-old scholarship winner already knows this firsthand.
Chamber Soloists of Detroit hopes to see more young people in attendance on Sunday, December 2 at 2 p.m. Audience members of all ages are invited to interact with violinist Alexander Kerr and pianist Pauline Martin at CSD’s signature Just Between Us talkback immediately following the concert.
Click here for tickets and information, or call (586) 944-5353 for more information.