In Tuesday’s (11/19) Philadelphia Inquirer, Alexandre Jaffe reports, “When he plays with his youth orchestra in front of more than 300 people, 13-year-old Max Chambers of Berwyn isn’t nervous. He’s done this a lot, he says, looking every bit the professional despite his age, in a white button-down and black dress pants. Max sits in the first chair of the second violin section of the Musicopia String Orchestra.… Since he was 9, Max has known that he wants to spend his life playing the violin. But he might not have been able to pursue his dream without help from the Marian Anderson Young Artist Study Grant, a program of the Marian Anderson Award that supports aspiring student artists.… The Young Artist Study Grant, now in its 12th year, was established to financially assist aspiring high school-age artists in the Philadelphia region…. His mother, Belinda Chambers, says the Young Artist Study Grant has been instrumental in Max’s progress as a musician. ‘It gets expensive,’ she says. ‘That’s what happens with a lot of kids of color, especially—they get to a certain point and they can’t go on…. It’s about leveling the playing field. All of these kids have talent. It’s just about making it a little easier.’ ”
Posted November 19, 2013
