Publication Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Ahn hits the right note
Ahn hits the right note
(June 16, 2004) Paly grad the latest, and last, recipient of Music Prize
by Alexandria Rocha
If it's not Beethoven, it's Outkast. If it's not Chopin, it's Missy Elliot.
For Peter Ahn, 18, if it's not music, it's not worth it.
"Music challenges your brain in a way nothing else can," said Ahn, a new Palo Alto High School graduate who has played the violin since he was 4.
Ahn is this year's recipient of the Palo Alto Music Prize, a $20,000 scholarship awarded by a private donor through the Community Foundation Silicon Valley.
This is the fourth and final year the Music Prize will be awarded, making Ahn the finalist in more ways than one.
"It was something that the donor is very passionate about, music and music in the schools," said Michelle McGurk, a spokeswoman for the foundation.
The scholarship also included two $500 honorable mentions. This year's awards went to fresh Gunn High School graduates Joanne Yeh and Albert Lee.
Along with the private donor and foundation, the Palo Alto Unified School District helps make the competition happen.
Each year, the competition is open to juniors and seniors at Paly and Gunn. The students perform a preliminary audition in February in front of a panel of district music teachers. Kay Remsen, a former district music director and key coordinator of the event, said about 30 students gave preliminary auditions each year.
This year, there were seven finalists. The students performed in front of a team of educators from Stanford University and professional musicians.
Ahn swept the panel of judges with a rendering of "Andante and Hungarian Rondo" by Carl Maria von Weber on the viola. The piece, Ahn said, is about 10 minutes long.
Ahn -- who surprisingly is not from a musically-inclined family, though his 14-year-old sister, Annes also plays violin and viola -- will use the scholarship toward his education at Stanford, where he plans to begin studying economics next year. With a degree in economics, Ahn said, "I figure that makes it broad enough that I can go off into business, politics or law."
Though his parents do not actively play instruments, Ahn said it was their encouragement that kept him musically motivated.
While Ahn was growing up, the family moved around a lot -- to Michigan, New York and even Korea -- following his dad's career as a political science instructor. Ahn said moving made it difficult to stick with music -- once he found an instructor dedicated to his musical talents, the family would move away.
The family moved to Palo Alto during the winter of 2001 when Ahn was a high school freshman. They've been here since, and Ahn was able to strengthen his musical disciplines.
"Once I got into it I realized it was a great hobby to have," he said. "It's really priceless because you can play it through your whole life. It's a great way to make friends."
And his parents are glowing.
"I saved the money for their music lessons, that was my priority," said Hyemee, Ahn's mother. "I knew a music program was necessary for them to make a good personality. It paid off."
Alexandria Rocha can be e-mailed at arocha@paweekly.com
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