Stepping into the Spotlight
Violinist Katy Scott ’24 selected to perform on a national stage.
BY KATE DUNLOP
It was mid-July and Katy Scott ’24 was at a classic Vermont summer camp, the kind where she could play her violin down by the lake in an outdoor reverie after a day of hiking. It was there that she learned she’d been selected to perform with the All-National Honor Symphony Orchestra in Maryland in November 2022.
Symphony orchestras have two violin sections, and Scott will play in the more prestigious first section, which typically carries the melody. It’s the next step for the St. Paul’s School Fifth Former, who played in the third chair of the first section with the New Hampshire All-State Musical Festival in April, though Scott was still surprised to hear she was accepted to the national competition.
“I auditioned last year as a shot in the dark and was an alternate, but they didn’t need me,” says Scott, who hails from Massachusetts. “I’ve been working really hard this past year, so to be accepted is very rewarding. I’m excited to meet so many people from across the country.”
Scott auditioned with a recording of the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 but doesn’t know yet what pieces she’ll perform in Maryland. When she does, she’ll begin learning them with an approach she’s been perfecting since she started playing at the age of four.
“I rely heavily on listening to multiple recordings with their different interpretations, tones, and phrasing,” Scott explains. “I take that and decide what I like and how I want to play the piece.”
More than anything, Scott plays to share her own love of the violin. After the work and frustration of learning a piece comes the reward — and even relaxation — of playing music by memory. Scott finds community through her music, whether performing last year in Chapel with her sister, Abigail Scott ’22, playing with a chamber group or a full orchestra, or pulling together a virtual performance with the help of faculty and peers to share with audiences in elderly care residences.
A three-year member of the SPS Music Program, Scott has distinguished herself as a true leader both in ability and attitude, according to Director of Music Orlando Pandolfi. “I have never met a more positive, affable, yet highly motivated student,” he says. “I count her among my best students in more than 40 years teaching.”
Scott, who was named a Ferguson Scholar as a Fourth Former for her academic achievements and was coxswain for the girls crew program’s third boat that received the Coach’s Award last spring, applies some of the lessons she’s learned on the strings to her other pursuits.
“The hard work and persistence of music is applicable to things like my schoolwork — if I don’t understand something we’re learning, I have confidence that I’ll eventually get it,” she says. “I’m grateful that I’ve gotten to play violin because it’s taught me a lot about what it means to put time into something and be rewarded for the effort. I’ve had a lot of fun and met a lot of good people, too.”
I’m grateful that I’ve gotten to play violin because it’s taught me a lot about what it means to put time into something and be rewarded for the effort.”