Two young musicians,
one exciting venue

By Christina M. Dickerson
Youth and Young Adult Coordinator

They’ve been playing their instruments since their age was in the single digits; they’ve committed countless hours to fine-tuning their talents. And now, they can attest, it was worth every minute.

Devon Preparatory School’s senior class member Rory Wasiolek and junior Kevin Miller were selected to participate in the Philadelphia Archdiocesan All Catholic Orchestra after a highly competitive audition. Wasiolek was named first chair cello and Miller was named second chair bass.

Both dedicated musicians and scholars, they will perform with the orchestra March 30 at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts during the 2005 National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) conference.

“I play in Villa Maria’s orchestra, and their conductor, Joyce Prichert, is also the conductor for All Catholic this year. And [she] kind of bullied me into trying out,” Wasiolek said. “I also tried out because I figured that it would be great to put on college applications that I would be playing [first] cello at the Kimmel Center.”

Miller has also played in the Villa Maria Orchestra for several years. This year, he decided to give the All Catholic Orchestra a try.

“The main thing that surprised me about the All Catholic Orchestra, and auditions, was the number of bass players,” Miller said. “Before All Catholic, I had known only a few high school bass players. …[I] was pleasantly surprised that quite a few showed up.”

The two Devon students auditioned for their positions with hundreds of talented high school students from throughout the archdiocese.

“The tryout piece was a piece that I had done when I was in seventh grade, so I didn’t have to prepare much for the audition, which consisted of a simple, two-octave scale, a short sight-reading section, and the piece,” Wasiolek said.

Miller’s audition piece was one of his favorites, he said: “The audition was not particularly difficult for me, musically, since the audition piece was one that I enjoyed, so I ended up playing it a fair amount beforehand,” he said.

Both young men said they were excited to be playing for the national conference at one of the region’s finest performance halls.

Miller said the venue was one of the main reasons he tried out for the orchestra this year: “I had been to many concerts and events in the center, knew how beautiful and acoustically excellent it is. And [I] was — and am — definitely looking forward to playing there.”

Likewise, Wasiolek said he considers playing a the center “a great opportunity, especially for such a relatively local and esoterically composed —all Catholic — orchestra.”

Both young musicians earned the opportunity through years of work.

“I started playing the cello in fifth grade because it was the instrument most like the guitar, which I had played since I was four,” Wasiolek said. “I enjoyed it, and have never even really considered stopping my lessons or playing.”

Miller has been playing music since he was in third grade, he said.

“I still don’t know exactly what made me want to play ‘the big one’ — but I never had any doubts that playing the bass was what I really wanted to be doing,” he said. “As soon as I entered fifth grade, and was big enough to play the bass, I did.

“Once I started playing — or maybe before — I developed a fascination with the bass parts of every song or piece of music I heard, and realized that the higher parts — which most people pay more attention to — are really just frills attached to the real music going on underneath,” he said.

For him, playing bass is fun and relaxing rather than work. “One of my favorite things to do after a rough day is to pick up my bass and just play for a while, not particularly practicing anything, or trying to get anything accomplished, just relaxing and enjoying the music,” Miller said.

Wasiolek, who will enter college next year, said he plans to major in science and minor in music. He will specialize in his first-loved musical instrument, the guitar.
Miller said he plans to pursue engineering or the sciences as a career, but he still plans to evaluate the music programs at the colleges he will be applying to. He wants to continue playing the bass for the rest of his life.

But right now, the prospect of playing at the Kimmel Center is exciting and satisfying enough.

“I just want to say what a great opportunity I think this is, and what a great conductor [Joyce] Prichert is,” Wasiolek said.

Miller, equally enthusiastic, added: “It will probably be the only time in my life I have the opportunity to play in a concert hall as nice as the Kimmel, and I’m thrilled to be doing it.”

Christina M. Dickerson is the Youth and Young Adult Coordinator for The Catholic Standard & Times.