Joy to be heard: Joy Adams and her cello has made a capitivating music couple

Apr 18, 2007

Author: Thomas Costigan

Position: Editor

Source: Deer Park Tribune

When Joy Adams was 5 years old, she was content to learn Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the violin.

Now, more than a decade later, the 18-year-old Half Moon Prairie resident is having to decided which prestigious music school she'll attend later this year.

Adams, who now plays the cello (she took it up three years ago), won the String Young Artist Division of Musicfest Northwest last May. The award earned her a guest spot with the Spokane Symphony.

Last summer she spent nine weeks at the internationally flavored Aspen Music Festival.

And those honors do not include the past three years working with noted cellist Kevin Hekmatpanah at Gonzaga University.

So how did Adams go from a preschooler with a one-song repertoire to one of the most accomplished young cellists in the country? Blame it on noted British cellist Jacqueline de Pre.

After learning that first song, Adams did not get serious about playing the violin until a few years later when her mother, Juliane, thought she could play Silent Night at a community Christmas program. Adams, who did not put the violin down this time, graduated to the viola at the age of 13 and the cello after hearing a recording of de Pre.

I just had to play that piece, she said. I had to play like that.

Adams, who is home schooled and a part-time student in the Deer Park Home-Link program, spends four days a week with Hekmatpanah at GU. She gets to the school at 7:30 a.m. and usually does not get home until her father, Ted, picks her up after work at around 5:30 p.m.

Adams, one of the younger member of the Gonzaga Symphony Orchestra, joked that most of the fellow musicians at the school just assume she is a GU student because she's always there.

I usually don't get a lot of practice time at home, she said.

Her practice schedule at home is usually limited to 3-4 hours a day.

Ted Adams plays the upright bass while his wife plays the harp and violin. And their three other children also play a variety of string instruments.

Actually, Adams' musical roots can be traced back at least four generations in Germany, where her great-grandfather was an accomplished violinist.

She was actually a Running Start student at Eastern Washington University last year, but her hectic schedule no longer allows her to travel to Cheney.

Her musical talent has also reached across the state. The Carlson Foundation in Bellevue has given her the use of a 70-year-old cello worth between $15,000-$20,000.

Adams said the instrument has a much broader range of tone than the three other cellos she has at home.

It opens up for me many different types of sound, she said.

Having such an expensive instrument comes with some added responsibilities. When she travels by airplane, she must buy the cello its own ticket for the seat it has to occupy next to her.

The unusual airline passenger does spark gripes from other passengers who wonder why the cello gets the window seat.

Adams was one of 750 musicians (out of more than 2,000 applicants) to earn a spot at the Aspen Music Festival. The setting allowed her to hear and take part in concerts every night along with working with some of the teachers from some of the major music schools in the United States.

It was a lot of fun and very inspiring, she said.

Adams said she has received inquiries from The Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan.

The private schools carry an annual tuition of about $45,000 while the Michigan school may be less expensive because it is a state-run university.

Adams will have to make her decision in the next couple of weeks.

Wherever Adams goes, it will be quite a journey from those days of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.