I grew up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where the styles of music are compa, voodoo, racine, zouk and troubadour. I did not know much about classical music until I attended l’Ecole de Musique Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Music School), the most well-established music school in Haiti, where I was given the privilege to begin my musical training. I started learning the violin at the age of eight. After joining the National Philharmonic Orchestra and earning an advanced certificate at the Festival Summer Music Camp in 2002, I became a violin instructor at Holy Trinity. At that point I felt like my musical skills and knowledge were limited; but my devotion to music earned me a full scholarship to come to the United States to further my musical studies at the University of XXXX in 2015.
In America I was exposed to a wider range of distinctive styles in the orchestral repertoire and had the opportunity to see, for the first time in my life, a professional orchestra–the Duluth Superior Symphony. I remember at one of their concerts they performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica,” and that piece began to speak to me in a way I’d never experienced. I anxiously listened, and at the moment--in the first movement’s recapitulation where the C sharp becomes D flat enharmonically (which Beethoven had revolutionarily written at the end of a main theme in E flat in the opening); everything seemed to open. From that moment forward, I have wanted to create music such as this. and learn to excel as a conductor.
I have maintained a vast array of musical preferences and taken advantage of numerous opportunities for personal development. Since 2016, I’ve been volunteering as a staff member at the Festival Summer Music Camp in Haiti where I coach chamber music and teach music theory, conducting sectionals, and violin lessons. I also had the opportunity to apply my conducting skills and techniques by conducting the intermediate chamber orchestra (Petit Orchestre de Chambre).
This past summer, I was placed in charge of the ensemble, artistically and administratively. Due to my aptitude for choosing the appropriate repertoire and having the ability to adjust musically to such difficult conditions, especially following the devastating earthquake in, 2009, I believe that my experience as a conductor has been enormously beneficial to the music program at Holy Trinity, confirming my dedication to continue studying conducting.
DMA Doctor of Musical Arts Orchestral Conducting Personal Statement
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