Local students among top musicians in Northwest
April 20, 2010
By Christopher Huber
Two Skyline High School musicians will get to perform with the pros this spring after making the top 10 in a regional music competition.
Matt DeLuca and Carly Ann Worden each earned a spot in the May 21 Ten Grands concert at Benaroya Hall. They were voted among the 10 best young musicians in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, according to organizers at the KING FM Ten Grands Young Artist Awards competition. About 170 young musicians entered the contest, said Kathy Fahlman Dewalt, Ten Grands executive producer.
“When I finally found out, I kind of just freaked out,” said Worden, who plays piano and violin and sings and composes.
DeLuca, who plays marimba and percussion for the Seattle Youth Symphony, was equally surprised, as he entered his audition video at the last minute, he said. He performed “Marimba d’Amour.”
“When I saw that my video made top 20, I was fairly surprised that I even made it that far,” DeLuca said. When he made top-10, “I was completely surprised that I made it that far.”
Pianist Alexander Lu, 10, of Redmond, won the competition and will be featured at the concert along with the 10 professional piano performers.
Seven professional judges and representatives at KING FM voted on the musicians’ YouTube videos to narrow it to 20, Fahlman Dewalt said. Then a YouTube audience voted to choose the top 10, as well as a winner.
“I just can’t believe the kids and the talent,” said Fahlman Dewalt. “This is fun. Like the grandest of the grand.”
As surprised and humbled as DeLuca is about participating in the Ten Grands concert, he’s won other serious competitions, like the Washington state solo and ensemble competition, he said. He also played with the Tacoma Philharmonic in the 2009 Beatrice Herman Young Artist solo competition. He plays a variety of percussion instruments, but is most passionate about the marimba.
“It’s just a very wide range of emotions that I can bring out on the marimba,” he said.
“The marimba is really not that popular of an instrument,” DeLuca said.
He’s been playing marimba for much of his life, he said. It started with drum lessons. Then he heard a marimba on a video game and became interested in it.
“Turns out I happened to love it,” he said.
The marimba, which looks like a giant xylophone with tubes under each bar, supplements the strong beats of drums with rich, melodious flavors.
“I really like how I can keep a really percussive feel on the marimba but bring out the melody,” DeLuca said.
His goal is to be No. 1 in state on the marimba. In 2009 he placed second at the state Solo and Ensemble competition — he took first place in the timpani.
DeLuca said his ultimate goal is to raise awareness about the marimba, whether through performing professionally or just for fun later in life.
Skyline student Carly Ann Worden earned a spot at the Ten Grands concert after performing an original piano composition, “Never Leave Me.” Photo by Christopher Huber
Worden earned her spot in the Ten Grands concert after performing “Never Leave Me,” an original composition. It’s one of many piano pieces she has written in recent years.
“Most of them, they just come right from my head,” Worden said. “It’s one of my more impressive sounding ones. It just kind of clicked with me.”
For the past three years, Worden has attended the Ten Grands concert, but she wanted to participate this year and make some connections in the professional music world, she said. When she entered the contest in December, she was hopeful, with mixed feelings.
“When I was top-20, I was like, ‘woah,’” Worden said. She proceeded to practice for a potential performance like her life depended on it. “It became like, the No. 1 thing in my life.”
After making the top 10, “it’s just a sigh of relief,” she said.
Worden has been playing piano since she was three. She really got good in the last five or six years as she worked with private instructor, SAMMI-Award-winning Sandra Hopper, Worden said.
“Recently, it’s been a big reliever of stress. It’s all I want to do,” Worden said. “It’s really brought me out of times of depression.”
As she continues to practice piano, violin and vocals, as well as and compose fresh piano pieces, Worden also teaches local youth.
“It’s like a sport for me,” she said. “All of my songs have personality like a human does.”
She dedicates nearly every new composition to someone, including her father, mother, sister, and even Shakespeare, she said.
Her sister’s song, for example, represents the dynamics of being best friends, with grand movements, but an overall calm feel, she said. The song she wrote for her father, captures his brave spirit, Worden said.
Worden sees being part of Ten Grands as a jumping-off point, she said. It’s part of her ultimate goal of writing movie scores. She listens to classics like Gone with the Wind and a variety of other blockbusters.
“‘Atonement’ makes me cry every time,” she said.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.
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