Symphony players mix music and mentoring

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Jan. 22--The three cellists couldn't look more different.

Neal Cary wears a sport coat and pressed slacks. Tambria Smith is in a T-shirt and pigtails. Tess Fisher sports jeans covered in drawn-on doodles.

But together, the three are making music.

Cary is the Richmond Symphony's principal cellist, and Tambria and Tess are eighth-graders in the orchestra at Richmond's Binford Middle School.

Through an artist-in-residency program, Cary and other members of the symphony's string quartet come to Binford periodically over the winter to play with the school's young strings musicians. This is the fifth time the symphony has partnered with an area school for a program of this type.

Cary might not use a ballpoint to doodle on his pants leg, but he can use his bow to make the sound of seagulls on his cello.

One recent morning, he gave Tambria and Tess, both 14, an exercise to play with their eyes closed. He offered to try it with them, and together, the three put bows to cellos and started to play. The instruments bellowed their deep tones, more or less in unison.

Tess opened her eyes, a quixotic look on her face. Confused by the sound, Tambria shook her head, making her pigtails shake, too.

"You learn, I guess, more about certain techniques and stuff, different ways to place your fingers," Tess said later.

Binford orchestra teacher Christie-Jo Adams said it's helpful for students to practice with musicians who play the same instruments they do.

"It's helped all of us," she said. "I can teach all of the instruments -- I've been taught to do that -- but my instrument is the violin. I'm better at that one."

For some Binford students, the small-group instruction with symphony musicians is as close as they have come to private lessons.

Another benefit, Adams said, is the confidence that comes from exposure to professionals. Several of her students were chosen recently to participate in a regional orchestra, which invites students from around the Richmond area to try out for slots.

"They're willing to try because they see it's a possibility," Adams said.

Cary and other symphony string-quartet members will visit the school 12 times by March, when the residency culminates with a side-by-side concert at the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen. Each student musician will sit beside a member of the symphony as they perform "St. Paul's Suite" by Gustav Holst together.

It's a difficult piece, and Tambria, who switched from the violin to the cello this year, said she's a little nervous about the concert.

But Cary said pulling off the performance is not the only aim of the program. "If I spark some interest in the arts, I'll be happy with that."

Contact staff writer Lindsay Kastner at lkastner@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6058.

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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