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Master Class in oak park T Master Class A student gets instruction from SAI Honorary Member Rachel Barton Pine at an April master class. he Oak Park Alumnae Chapter of SAI teamed up with the Oak Park (Illinois) Public Library to sponsor a master class by SAI Honorary Member, Rachel Barton Pine on April 20, 2013. More than 90 people filled the library's main meeting room to capacity to hear Pine work with three local students from local the local middle school and high schools. The three students were chosen on the recommendations of their local middle school and high school orchestra teachers or private lesson teachers, and all of them came from different studios. Benjamin Srajer, an 8th grader at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, started to play violin when he was 4 1/2 with his teacher Jenny Cappelli. He had a good friend who thought it would be a cool thing to do. So they did it. He plays with the Gwendolyn Brooks 12 PAN PIPESSUMMER 2013 sai-national.org Middle School Orchestra in Oak Park, the Brooks Camerata String ensemble, and plays with Protégé Symphony Orchestra in downtown Chicago. His selection for the master class was the first movement of JS Bach Concerto in A Minor. Ben Ellenbogen is a freshman at Oak Park River Forest High School. He is a student of Meg E Lanfear. Ellenbogen played the first movement of the Mozart Concerto in G No. 3. Christy Como is a junior at Trinity High School in River Forest. She studies with Thomas Wermuth at Western Springs School of Talent Education. She began playing at the end of kindergarten, when she was 6, and has now been playing 17 years. Christy was in the Allegro String Ensemble at Western Springs for two years, and is now in Chicago Consort. She first started playing because her mom asked if she wanted to, but she was inspired by the Allegro group in Western Springs and hearing Joshua Bell. She played the Andante movement from Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole. Como says she was purposeful in her choice of music. "Since I had prepared the slow, dramatic fourth movement of Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, I expected that Ms. Pine would work on musical expression rather than work on technique," Christy said. "I loved her story behind it; her descriptions allowed for accurate and expressive emotions to guide my playing. I thoroughly enjoyed working on it with her. She pushed me to play even quieter yet strong; even more intensely, to really feel the music." Pine worked with the students on everything from practice tips and concert etiquette to story telling through music. For example, she shared with the students and the audience the "story" she imagines as she

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