STUDENT CLOSE-UP

Knowing the Score

Note: This story was published originally in the winter 2004 issue of Mosaics, the magazine for alumni and friends of the College of Arts and Science.

Mizzou on Tour in New York will feature Holly Huelskamp, her accompanist Mark Nicholas and pianist Bo Tang in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on March 20. Tickets can be ordered by calling 1-800-430-2966.

By Nancy Moen

Here’s a twist: a violin student who drove her parents crazy because she wanted to practice all the time.

“They’d try to get me to stop,” Holly Huelskamp, BM ’03, says, “but I’d be rebellious and keep playing.” Eventually her parents gave up trying to convince Huelskamp to switch her major to engineering. She was always good at math, so she had humored her parents for a while with a dual degree, but violin performance won in the end.

Put a violin under Huelskamp’s chin and a transformation begins. The soft-spoken student emerges as an engaging performer. Wisps of blond hair float across her cheek unnoticed as she bows the instrument with graceful movements.

As a girl, she chose violin over viola because violinists get center stage and better parts. “I prefer performing to anything else,” she says. “It’s a rush.” So it’s no surprise that she favors music that “lets you go free and show off at the same time.”

During her senior year, Huelskamp ranked among the top undergraduate collegiate violinists in the nation. She won state and regional levels and placed third nationally at the 2003 competition of the Music Teachers National Association. In early fall 2003, she reaffirmed her national stature by taking second place in the Young Artist Auditions of the National Federation of Music Clubs.

Those noteworthy accomplishments took “hours and hours and hours of practice” – as many as five hours a day – plus two lessons a week and travel to numerous competitions.

Huelskamp has been concerto soloist with the Alton Symphony in Illinois and was featured in a Mizzou on Tour performance in St. Louis at The Sheldon Concert Hall. On March 20, she will play in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall through Mizzou on Tour.

From 1999 to 2003, she held the position of concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, a title won through blind auditions in competition against upper-level and college students. The experience introduced her to many of the symphony players and the conductor, who wrote her a recommendation for graduate school.

As an undergraduate, Huelskamp studied with Professor Eva Szekely, who, she says, is a great teacher.

Huelskamp graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in violin performance and now studies at Indiana University with another of the nation’s distinguished violin teachers, Paul Bliss. After hearing Huelskamp’s audition, Bliss immediately accepted her as a student.

Mark Nicholas of St. Louis spent his formative years in the Midwest in such cities as St. Louis and Kansas City. He began studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1999 under the tutelage of Maestro Edward Dolbashian, director of orchestral activities. In addition to conducting MU’s student orchestra, Nicholas helped prepare opera and opera scenes productions, organized chamber concerts for student conductors and accompanied student recitals. In 2001, he received the Achievement Award in Accompanying for his work with student performers. After completing an MU master’s degree in conducting in 2002, he began an appointment as an assistant conductor for Shreveport Opera in Louisiana.

Nicholas has performed nationally as soloist and accompanist and has worked as composer, coach and conductor. His compositions include works for orchestra, mixed chamber ensembles, voice and piano, solo piano and electronic media. One of his recent Missouri commissions for the Columbia Youth Orchestra and Chorus, “A Missouri River Cantata,” will be performed this spring. The work is based on the poetry and prose of native Missouri poet John Neihardt.

In addition to his degree from MU, Nicholas has a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music and a master’s degree in piano performance from Yale University School of Music.

A native of China, pianist Bo Tang began his piano studies at age 5 and gave his first public performance at 7. In collegiate competition, his most recent achievement is winning the Graduate Division of the Missouri Music Teachers Association state auditions held in Kansas City in November. He has participated in numerous competitions, including the Fourteen Cities Invitational, Jiang Qiaosheng Competition and Chengdu Piano Competition, all in China. In recognition of his exceptional talent and dedication, Tang accepted an invitation to teach at the Sichuan Conservatory from 1998 to 2001 as one of its youngest faculty members. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, Tang was selected to perform for the Museum of Art and Archaeology Gala Concert.

He is an avid soloist and has performed in master classes given by Jerome Lowenthal, Michael Ponti, William Race and Guang-Ren Zhou. Tang earned his bachelor’s degree from Sichuan Conservatory of Music as a student of Han-Guo Yang. Formerly a student of Elinor Freer at MU, Tang is completing his master’s degree in piano performance as a full-scholarship student of MU Assistant Visiting Professor Ayako Tsuruta. He plans to graduate in May 2004 and then pursue doctoral work in piano in the United States.

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Last Update: July 2, 2009