Young violinist has busy, varied life

The Saint Louis Symphony's Youth Orchestra is a select group with young people up through college age. Thirteen-year-old Holly Jenkins is in her third year with the group.

She won an audition when she was 11, a year younger than the usual minimum age for admission to the orchestra. "I was a year early," she said.

Holly comes from a musical family. Both her father, Doug, and mother, Carrie, have degrees in music from Principia College. Her older sister, 15-year-old Robin, is an accomplished pianist and the two have a solo recital every spring.

They've already decided their younger brother, Huck, will play the cello to make a trio ensemble. Of course, they'll have to wait a bit since Huck is less than a year old.

Holly started playing the violin when she was six and the family was living in Alaska. Her first instrument was a 1/8th size, purchased by mail-order from a shop in Overland Park, Kan., near Kansas City.

But, Holly's life hasn't been all music.

After leaving Alaska, the family traveled around the country while their dad tried to make a name for himself as a race-car driver. However, making it on a financial shoestring was impossible in a sport dominated by well-financed teams for big-time sponsors.

The family moved to St. Louis and now lives just a few blocks from The Principia School in west St. Louis County. The Principia is the K-12 affiliate of Principia College in Elsah, Ill. Doug now runs Doug Jenkins Custom Hot Rod shop in the city of St. Louis.

Another traveling adventure in Holly's young life involved a summer trip to Costa Rica. There, she lived with her former second grade teacher, Rachel Crandell, who was working to save the rainforest in that island nation.

"I loved it there. I stayed in a hut in the forest for two weeks," she said.

Earlier this year, Holly and her sister Robin played in a benefit concert at The Principia. The concert raised money to further Ms. Crandell's environmental efforts.

Holly's early acceptance into the Youth Orchestra has opened up lots of other musical experiences. Most of them have been good. But, at least once, her young age led to a less than satisfactory experience.

She said one of her best musical experiences involved a summer chamber orchestra camp at Innsbruck, west of St. Louis.

There, the kids were mentored by professional musicians. The kids were placed in small "master's class" groups. Each member got critiqued on their playing and also got to hear all other members play.

"We had a wonderful coach from the Cleveland Institute of Music," she said.

Her less-than-happy experience came when she earned the number one seat in the violin section at another camp. She said another girl, who was 17, was less than pleased that Holly was rated ahead of her.

Holly takes private lessons from Amy Oshiro, a member of the Saint Louis Symphony.

She's also participating in a year-long program at the Webster University Music School. There, she gets a variety of music theory and instrument classes to prepare for college.

Holly said she wants to attend a conservatory school to prepare for a career in music.

"I want to join a symphony and, on the side, be in a chamber group," she said.

She said one of her strengths in music is "that I feel the music really well. It comes easy to me."

However, she said she needs to improve on her musical technique. By that, she means being able to "play the music flawlessly." To do that, she needs plenty of practice.

To get the proper "intonation," she said she needs to be able to break a piece of music down into "phrases" and then be able to put them back together at the right tempo. That is much like learning to speak fluently.

A person might sound out individual words and phrases and then put them together into a properly paced sentence.

Holly breaks up her music and home-school academic classes with physical exercise.

"I play racquet ball three times a week and Robin and I walk our Rottweiler dogs two or three times a day," she said. One of their favorite walking routes is on the grounds of The Principia School nearby.