BetrOlitrung Up

A teen-aged violinist gets the chance to perform as a soloist
with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

PHOTO BY DANI EL LIPPITT

"; arely 3 years old, Jannina Barefield want-
ed to play the bass. Her curiosity was
stoked by the frequent jazz sessions her
father's band held in their Detroit home.
Barbara and jazz guitarist A. Spencer
Barefield soon encouraged their daugh-
ter's interest by giving her what they ex-
plained was a "little bass" — a violin.
Jannina took to her instrument imme-
diately, and over the years, her devotion and determi-
nation have yielded scholarships and plenty of awards.
This week, during educational concerts planned for
groups of young listeners, the 14-year-old performs as
soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchesti-a. (DSO). She
is playing a concerto by Henryk Wieniaski, the piece she
performed on her way to winning the Detroit Sympho-
ny Civic Orchestra's Concerto Competition last year.
Jannina likes to tackle the concerto's technical diffi-
culties and appreciates its sweet-sounding sections.
"I can't imagine playing anything other than the vi-
olin," said Jannina, a ninth-grader at Roeper City and
Country School and a music student of Professor Paul
Kantor, head of the string department at the Universi-
ty of Michigan School of Music.
"I played the piano for a while, but I didn't feel I had
as much liberty with it."
Jarmina's early training was dominated by the sound-
based Suzuki technique at the Center for Creative Stud-
ies Institute of Music and Dance. Later, she turned to
Dr. Morris Hochberg, former DSO assistant concert-
master, for instruction.
The teen-aged instrumentalist also attended Inter-
lochen Arts Camp, the Indiana University School of Mu-
sic String Academy and the Aspen Music
Jannina
Festival School. Scholarship money from
the Skillman Foundation, American Sym- Barefield took
the little
phony Orchestra League and the Aspen Mu up bass
as a
sic School have helped support her studies.
child.
"Practicing takes so much time, but af-
ter a performance, there is a rush that lets me know the
practicing has been worth it," said Jannina, who has per-
formed with her father's group at the Montreux Detroit
Jazz Festival.
Other special performances have been with the De-
troit Chamber Music Society at the group's 50th an-
niversary concert, Detroit Metropolitan Orchestra,
Brazeal Dennard Chamber Orchestra and the Metro-
politan Youth Symphony.
To raise money for Roeper scholarships, she performed
Feb. 2 with her guitarist-composer father and her broth-
er, Spencer, 9, a violinist and pianist.
For her bat mitzvah at Workmen's Circle, she arranged
a presentation of klezmer music and performed with
Yale Strom, a musician, filmmaker and author who is
including Jannina in a coming-of-age book. Mr. Strom
wrote and directed the documentary film The Last

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Klezmer.

"I had to pick a topic that pertained to Jewish histo-
ry, and I always loved klezmer music," Jannina said
about her bat mitzvah presentation.
While she has developed a deep love for the classics,
she also enjoys playing jazz with her dad and rock with
her friends. She is looking forward to another summer
of study in Aspen.
"I would like to be a solo violinist," said Jannina, who
believes musical training has enhanced other areas of.
her life. "I think that musical experiences have given me
more understanding, and music studies have helped me
with my memorization in other subjects." ❑

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