‘That Cello Girl’ Ruth Boden’s Superior Playing Earns National Recognition

This is the story of Ruth and Aldo.

Ruth is a cellist. Aldo is her cello. In a basement room they sit: she in faded Levi’s and worn Converse, he balanced on an end pin. With a bend of her head and the flex of her fingers, she begins to play. And he begins to weep.

The East Valley High valedictorian loves Aldo, his gleaming spruce and maple finish. She plays him daily, carrying a flannel dustcloth to wipe away any marks.

For Ruth Boden, the cello has an incredibly wide and expressive sound, covering the range of the human voice and imparting a philosophic tone and melancholy unique among stringed instruments.

And it’s big.

That’s what first drew the precocious fourth-grader to the cello at Trentwood Elementary. Now 18, she’s just won a spot in the prestigious National High School Honors Orchestra, one of two musicians chosen to represent Washington state.

As principal cellist in two Spokane youth orchestras and two quartets, her music awards, gold medals and citations take up a page of type and she hasn’t graduated high school yet. When she does this spring, she hopes to pursue a performance degree at a top music conservatory.

Only a fraction of music students ever make a career performing. Professionally, there are fewer than 50 orchestras in the country that even pay a living wage. For a woman who’s earned a 4.0 grade-point average for as long as she can remember, the decision to pursue her music was not made lightly.

But Ruth’s teachers have little doubt she’ll succeed.

“So often when you have talent you don’t have the discipline to develop it and that’s what’s rare with Ruth,” said Wayne C. Smith, her mentor and private teacher.

“She was exceptional from the moment she started, truly a student that makes you proud you were ever connected with her,” said her first cello teacher, Mary Jayne.

“It’s basically just the want,” Ruth says. “You want to get better.”

That want has led her at times to wake at 4 a.m. to practice two hours before school, as well as two hours after. It’s sent her to music camps from Colorado to New York. It’s also why she’s called “that Cello Girl” around East Valley.

“It does become a huge part of your identity,” she said ruefully. “Since fifth grade it’s how I’ve been known.”

Ruth’s achievements are a shared triumph:

For the East Valley schools that expose students to violin, viola, cello and stringed bass beginning in fourth grade; then offer dedicated string teachers and performance opportunities through high school.

For the middle school mentoring program that introduced Boden to Smith, the professor of cello at Spokane Falls Community College and Spokane Symphony musician who became and remains her private teacher.

For her parents, Peter and Jeanette Boden, owners of the Brass and Woodwind Shop who went without vacations and even a bedroom set in order to nurture the musical talents of Ruth and her brothers, Pete and Kevin.

But this is mostly about Ruth, who picked up the cello because it was almost bigger than she was.

Now 5-foot-9, with long calloused fingers, she carries Aldo to endless charity performances and competitions, lugging a large white case the custodians call The Refrigerator.

At her weekly practice with the Spokane Youth Symphony’s quartet of Shayna Silverstein, Katherine Winner and her brother, Kevin, the atmosphere is casual and funny. But in competitions, students at their level face intense expectations and criticism. Many can’t cope.

“In baseball, if you hit the ball three out of 10 times, it’s a decent average. In music, if it’s not at 95 percent or higher, you’re not going to be asked back,” Smith said.

Ruth copes. She remembers well the “big time fear” she felt during her first solo, but has grown to love performing. Marla Pflanz, East Valley’s orchestra director, says she seems to handle everything with calm maturity and a dry wit, always humble and willing to use her talents where they best serve the group.

Her repertoire is unusually broad for a woman her age, Smith said, covering far more concertos and difficult pieces. She loves the romantic era typified by Dvorak and Tchaikovsky, for the same reason she chose to learn German.

“I like to pick a piece after people say, ‘No, you’re too young for that.’ I may not be ready, but I like a challenge I can throw myself into and make work,” Ruth says.

The challenges of the cello are cyclical: first working on a difficult passage until she finally gets it; then elation over her accomplishment, and the inevitable time when she ceases to be amazed she got it.

And even “that Cello Girl” sometimes wonders how she would have done if she’d had time to play sports. She wonders about a job.

She misses math, which she loves but had to forgo to spend more time auditioning for the conservatories.

The family couldn’t afford to send her to audition live, so she sent off audio and video tapes, and now she waits for word.

In her bedroom, next to the computer she composes music on, stands a second cello, Smudge. He’s her beater cello she uses to play with the East Valley Strolling Strings. Aldo is her baby.

But soon Ruth will even be beyond him. He’s been a difficult cello to play, and she figures any upgrade will be easier.

But he will always be Aldo, an instrument that she grew up with and that you swear can weep.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo