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The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

Musical Excellence: Sophomore Sammy Levine Nominated to All-Eastern Ensemble

Musical Excellence: Sophomore Sammy Levine Nominated to All-Eastern Ensemble

Over the course of their high school careers, many students will participate and play musical instruments. Many students aim to get into jazz band, symphonic orchestra or wind ensemble, three of the most elite music classes, but few are admitted each year. Of those accepted, even fewer are nominated for county, state and regional awards. But sophomore Sammy Levine is one of these few, in fact, he is one of two WJ students nominated for the prestigious All-Eastern Performing Ensemble.

The All-Eastern Performing Ensemble draws advanced music students from all over the east coast into an All-Eastern band, orchestra, jazz and chorus, sponsored by the Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Levine is nominated for his musical work with both the bass and the cello.

Levine’s musical background started at the age of five when his two older brothers, one of whom currently studies jazz piano at Northwestern University, began playing. His first instrument was the cello, which he has now been playing for nearly 12 years. Levine is able to play many instruments, including the piano and guitar, however he is only formally trained in the bass, which he has played for three years, and the cello. Although Levine enjoys the classical sound of the cello, he maintains that he does not have a favorite instrument; he enjoys different aspects of each instrument he plays.

“The base is more relaxing for me, because I play jazz on the bass,” said Levine. “Jazz just in general is a lot more free.”

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Levine, who is in both jazz band and symphonic orchestra, thoroughly enjoys his musical studies, often taking music home with him at the end of the day. According to Levine, the act of creating, or composing music, is his favorite activity.

“Out of every possibility that someone can do, out of any role a person can have in the world, the only type of person that creates something that wasn’t there [before] is an artist,” said Levine. “An artist takes something that wasn’t there and puts it into existence.”

Currently, Levine is recording an album of his music, and he has written and performed a few classical compositions.

“I compose every day, and I hear compositions in my head all the time,” he said. “I have composition journals that are the most disorganized things that anyone can imagine.”

Levine describes the process of composing as chaotic and stressful.

“[Composition] comes to me completely randomly, usually in the shower,” he said, adding that he can never sit down and compose music. “When it does I try and write it down, and half the time it doesn’t become anything and half the time it becomes my next work.”

Although Levine has other interests and hasn’t seriously looked at any music schools, at the moment he believes he will want to pursue music professionally in the future. At the moment, Levine is currently in a jazz combo with the Levine School of Music, a band and combo with the Jazz Academy of Music (under Paul Carr) and two rock bands. Occasionally, Levine also is hired for different gigs.

Levine is focusing on his already budding music career inside of school, as well. Aside from being nominated to the All-Eastern Ensemble, Levine has also won other awards. In middle school, he entered a “Reflections” competition, a national competition in which he composed a piece of music based on the theme, “What is Beauty?” Levine won second place. Levine also won an award for a solo he performed at this year’s Chantilly Farm Festival. In addition, Levine went to All-State jazz this year, and has gone to All-State orchestra twice.

However, due to the subjective nature of music and judging, Levine says that he has mixed feelings towards these awards and recognitions.

“I have a mixed relationship with people judging music,” he said, explaining that at the Chantilly Farm Festival he played in a jazz combo, which he thought performed quite well. “I listened to the recording hundreds of times…It [was] very good, [and] this [was] probably my best performance I’ve ever done. And I’m very harsh with the way I play, I usually do not like the way I play.”

Levine also says that based on the audience’s reactions, he thought their jazz combo performed well, especially when compared to the reactions that other groups that placed received. But despite his positive feelings, the combo failed to place. Levine says that the opinion of the three judges may not necessarily gauge the opinion of the audience.

After receiving great recognition for their work, some musicians change the way they think about or perform their music, but these numerous awards have not affected the way Levine approaches his music.

“Honestly, I don’t think of myself ever going into a field of music where I could be awarded things,” he said. “For all it’s worth, I’m probably just going to be on a stage performing my own composition with a band maybe, or who knows?”

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Megan Chun, Online Editor-in-Chief
This is senior Megan Chun’s third year on The Pitch staff, and her second consecutive year as the Online Editor-in-Chief. She is excited to continue her work on The Pitch Online with the new group of online editors. Megan’s activities (besides procrastinating and editing online blurbs) include Irish dancing, drinking smoothies, color-coding her closet, taking naps and watching cop dramas. Megan is eager to work with co-editors Emily and Claudia, in addition to the rest of the great 2013-2014 Pitch staff.
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