Arts in Education

Maine student musicians to study with National Symphony Orchestra

	Miranda Blanchard plays Bouree by W.H. Squire at the Blaine House.

Two young Maine musicians will attend the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute in Washington, D.C. this summer, from July 1 to July 21. Miranda Blanchard and Kallie Ciechomski were chosen from a statewide pool of applicants by the Maine Alliance for Arts Education.

Kallie Ciechomski plays viola and is a sophomore at Portland High School. Miranda Blanchard is a cellist who is a home schooled in Vienna. Both students will receive full scholarships which including private lessons, chamber music coaching, performance opportunities in the Washington, D.C. area, master classes and seminars, all with members of the National Symphony Orchestra. They received additional funding from the Alliance through a Unity Foundation grant.

Cindy Rubinfine, Miranda Blanchard's mother and accompanist, said of Miranda's selection, "She is thrilled and happy and excited. It is precisely the kind of experience that she wants and needs right now, and that we don't have the resources to provide."

First Lady Karen Baldacci hosted a tea at the Blaine House on April 29 to honor Maine's finalists for the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute for 2004.

The First Lady and Richard Abramson, chair of the Maine Alliance for Arts Education presented certificates to the two scholarship winners and the two finalists.

David McIntyre III is one of the finalists. He is an oboist and junior at Nokomis High School in Newport. He studies with Dr. Louis Hall and Bruce Brown.

Kallie studies with Julia Adams, Julianne Eberl and at the Portland Conservatory of Music. Miranda studies with Kathleen Foster. Leslie Harrison, a flutist from Cape Elizabeth and freshman at Ithaca College, was not able to attend.

The First Lady, Alliance executive director, Carol Trimble, and deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, Patrick Phillips all congratulated the finalists on their work. Dr. Dorothy Freeman, president and CAO of the Unity Foundation, which had given $250 in funding to the alliance for the program, presented an additional unrestricted gift of $500 to support the alliance's work.

Following the ceremony, the three young musicians performed for the assembled guests. David McIntyre played Allegro Moderato from Trio No. 1 by J. Haydn. Kallie Ciechomski played the Prelude from Suite No. 1 by J.S. Bach. Miranda Blanchard completed the program with a Bouree by W.H. Squire.