A Model Laboratory School sophomore has been accepted into the highly competitive Tanglewood Institute program for young musicians.
After successfully auditioning via video in January, Nathan Richey, of Berea, will be among only 11 clarinetists participating in this summer’s Young Artists Wind Ensemble.
Richey, who had previously played Appalachian-style fiddle, began playing clarinet at age 10, when he was starting fifth grade at Model.
Musical talent runs deep in the Richey family. Nathan’s father, Jeff, plays various stringed instruments and writes, records and performs original compositions with his band, The Jeff Richey Experience. Nathan’s paternal grandmother was a flutist through high school, and his paternal great-grandmother was also a clarinetist.
Nathan Richey successfully auditioned for the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra as a seventh-grader and was placed in the repertory orchestra, an ensemble designed for beginners. A year later, as an eighth-grader, he re-auditioned and was placed in the symphony orchestra, CKYO’s highest-level ensemble. He is one of four clarinetists in the 2015-16 CKYO Symphony Orchestra.
Jeff Richey credited his son’s achievements to his “immense talent, his excellent teachers – especially his private instructor, Adria Sutherland – and the encouragement of his family.”
The young Richey also managed to raise more than $4,000 in donations from friends, family and community members through a GoFundMe page (www.gofundme.com/64x8bfa4), which also contains his audition video.
The Tanglewood Young Artists Wind Ensemble is one of the nation’s premier summer youth programs of its kind, drawing outstanding winds, brass and percussion players from across the globe. It provides opportunities for its participants to study and perform works from the repertoire of great wind ensemble literature composed from the 17th century to today.
The month-long experience includes daily ensemble rehearsals with two concert performances, private lessons, chamber music rehearsals and coaching, master classes with some of the world’s most esteemed professionals, access to all Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center concerts and four hours of transferable Boston University course credit.