Young String Players Join For Memorable Evening

Annaliese Beaulieu started playing violin by mistake. She’d meant to sign up for viola, but stood in the wrong line.

Annaliese’s friend Caitlyn LaBrie thought the violin was quite cool when she started out.

That was, respectively, four and three years ago. The seventh graders are now close friends and among the strongest string players at Evergreen Junior High School. On Monday, they and other Central Valley strings students made an evening of fine music at the Met in their end-of-the-year concert.

The evening came in two parts, classical and fiddle music. For the latter, Central Valley’s Big Rock Fiddlers were joined by the Creston Fiddlers.

Was this international concert any good?

You bet. There was all the informality of an all-age school concert. Junior high musicians sat on the edge of the stage and chatted with friends before the concert began. But “The Surprise Symphony” actually took the audience by surprise. “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was lovely.

And when, after the elementary strings students finished their numbers and a proud parent called “encore,” orchestra director Eugene Jablonsky had the presence of mind to send them through their finale a second time - a rollicking version of “Night Train.”

“I thought it was great,” Annaliese said.

“Weren’t those Creston Fiddlers great?” said Caitlyn.

Both girls admired the group from British Columbia, which was made up of experienced young players. For Annaliese, listening to the group made her aware of the discipline and dedication needed to take the Big Rock Fiddlers up to the next level.

The Creston group joined Central Valley’s concert at Jablonsky’s invitation. Just the idea of performing at the Met was a high point for Caitlyn.

“I’m used to performing in school cafeterias,” she said.

The two friends have a lot in common, but musically they’re quite different.

They’ve both played in the Big Rock Fiddlers, started this year by Jablonsky. But Annaliese likes classical music better.

“I think I like the violin more. It’s more challenging…more technical and precise,” said Annaliese, who comes from a family in which everyone makes music.

She hopes to go on to the Valley Youth Orchestra next year.

Caitlin, though, says she will stick with fiddling, as well as the Central Valley strings program. With fiddle music, “you go faster and I think it’s funner.”

True friends, the girls find plenty to praise in each other’s playing.

Who is the better player?

“It depends on what you’re talking about,” explained Annaliese. “I’m not that great with timing. She’s great at keeping in time. She’s great at string crossings” - going from one string to the next.

“But I have a better sound.”

Ask Caitlyn the same question and her answer is loyalty itself: “She practices a lot more than me. She might think I’m a better fiddle player, but she is.”

Fiddles or violins, the girls say they’ll stay with their instruments. And with each other.

“We started as friends through music, but now we’re just friends,” Caitlyn said.