Cellist Brian Sanders wins VSA arts national Young Soloist Award

VSA arts of Wisconsin is proud to announce that cellist Brian Sanders, 22, of Madison has been selected as one of four young musicians to receive the 2006 VSA arts Young Soloists Award. Each honoree receives $5,000 and the opportunity to perform in concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Click here to watch footage from the Kennedy Center performance by all the Young Soloists.

The VSA arts Young Soloists Program was created in 1984 to identify talented young musicians with disabilities and to support and encourage them to turn their talent into a lifelong profession. A committee of prominent music professionals selects the award recipients. VSA arts is an affiliate of the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

"This program has helped launch the careers of talented young musicians for 22 years by offering awards and a concert performance at the Kennedy Center," Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts said.

Sanders began playing cello at 10 years old. As a high school student at Madison's East High School he was in the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra and by his junior year became principal cellist. Brian graduated from East High School in June 2002 and recently graduated from the renowned Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., majoring in cello performance, where he was the principal cellist of the Eastman Philharmonia. Sanders contributes his success as a musician to developing his own bow technique, having been born with two fingers on his right hand. Brian will graduate from Eastman in May.

Brian was a three-time recipient of VSA arts of Wisconsin's Earl and Eugenia Quirk scholarship, which was designed to encourage and enable Wisconsin students with a disability to further develop their artistic abilities.

"We've been following Brian's progress for a number of years," said Kathie Wagner, president of VSA arts of Wisconsin. "We are thrilled that he has been recognized nationally and that he will have the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center. I have attended Young Soloist performances in past years and it's great to know what a help this will be in launching Brian's career."

"The arts have benefited my life in more ways than I can say," says Brian. "Suffice it to say that the arts ARE my life. Because of my involvement in music, I have a possible future career in the arts. I have also used my teachings in music to recently begin writing it as well as playing it," he says. "Thus, I am benefiting not only from understanding music (an understanding which, frankly, I believe would benefit anyone immensely), but also I am able to contribute something to the arts world, a great life-enhancer."

Brian, who was born with only a thumb and forefinger on his right hand, says "my disability has affected my endeavors in that I have many classes which require (or at least strongly recommend) some facility with the piano. As I have only seven fingers, this is quite difficult, but with patient, accommodating teachers, it has not been a true liability as of yet, except in the fields of composition and music theory, where it would help immensely to be able to play what I am writing."

He goes on to say that what he calls his "unique hand" has made it necessary for him to learn bow technique mostly on his own, and also credits his teachers with helping him.

"The scholarship has made it easier financially for me to continue my education at the Eastman School, which is imperative to my success," says Brian. He continues to work on technique for both his right and left hand and says he hopes to continue his progress, "which in the end will enable me to attain the highest levels of musicianship. Accomplishing this will be no easy matter, of course, and will require a great deal of patient practice ... in the end my hard work will pay off."

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