By Marilyn Delk
DCCA News
Eclectic musical trio TAKE3 visited local schools recently, energetically performing for high school students who may have arrived thinking that they would find the classically trained female musicians to be unexciting (at best), and quite probably boring. And then Lindsay Deutsch, Georgia Bourderionnet, and Kyoka Minami took the stage, their intense energy immediately earning interest and their enthusiasm and sheer talent eventually totally captivating the crowd.
As the artists presented a plethora of music inspiring wonder and a sense of fun to the initially skeptical youngsters, violinist Lindsay, who had toured the world with Yanni, roamed the school’s auditorium, serenading students on bended knee, leaping around with joy, making beautiful music all the while. In the meantime, her compatriots remained on stage, tied to their fairly unmovable instruments, Georgia skillfully playing cello and Kyoka masterfully pounding away at a keyboard, striking almost every key and reminding me of the famous line from Amadeus when Emperor Joseph II informs the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that his excellent composing used “too many notes.”
Although Lindsay is the star of the show, Georgia and Kyoka are no less talented or engaged in the joy of performance. All confessed to having been forced to practice classical music throughout their youth, and attested to the thrill of expanding their repertoire to include songs by pop stars and themes from TV shows and movies. Cellist Georgia grew up in New Orleans, a city where music is as abundant as the food for which the city is famous. Her father, a jazz saxophone player who was enamored with classical music, pushed her to take up the cello; she went on to study at the famed Eastman School in New York City, and is now happily touring the world with her exquisite $40,000 instrument.
When Kyoka arrived in the United States three short years ago, she spoke not a word of English; however, her musical talents spoke volumes to her mentors at Boston Conservatory, transcending spoken language to communicate beautifully with others. Her now impeccable English is not the only innovation the twenty-three year old has experienced since coming to this country; until embarking on this tour with TAKE3, the petite pianist had never played anything except classical music! And after three weeks of touring as a member of the group, she says of this repertoire expansion, “I am having so much fun!”
The set list presented to youngsters included mash-ups of popular hits, classical stalwarts, John Williams movie scores and more, ending with an incredible combination of bluegrass classic “Orange Blossom Special” with “Flight of the Bumblebee,” by Rimsky-Korsakov, and Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.” The amazing feat of those diverse classics literally being played all at the same time had feet tapping throughout the auditorium, and deservedly earned a roar of applause from the assembled crowd.
In a brief question and answer period, Lindsay admitted that making a living doing what one was born to do by making music is not an easy career path to follow. “But we are working 300 days a year now, and have traveled to every continent, learning about other cultures and meeting diverse people every day,” she explained with pride.
Darke County Center for the Arts’ Arts In Education program presents high-quality performing artists to students at all grade levels in Darke County and Greenville City Schools. The goal of AIE is not only to entertain, but also to expand horizons and to inspire; the amazing musicians of TAKE3 certainly accomplished DCCA’s purpose. But simply put, the performance by TAKE3 was a whole lot of fun for all concerned!
