Elizabeth Stern ’08 Dazzles Audience, Showcases Talent at Julliard Pre-College Recital
By Asa Maynard ’10
News Reporter
She walked onto the stage, her cranberry dress catching everyone’s eye. Her golden flute caught the light, throwing it out into the audience. She gave her accompanist a smile and held the instrument to her lips. Everyone in the audience was transported to another world as the music flowed from her flute through the wooden hall.
Elizabeth Stern ’08 held her senior recital at the Juilliard School on Saturday, January 12—a culmination of her seven years in the Juilliard School’s pre-college program.
As a three-year-old pianist, Stern was a curious musician. After hearing her grandmother play flute, she chose the instrument and fell in love. After three years of study, she was admitted to the Juilliard Pre-College School after a very competitive audition process. She was the youngest wind player ever to be admitted to the program, playing in an orchestra of high school musicians at just eleven years old.
As a pre-college student, Stern has spent almost every Saturday in New York City for nearly a decade. Sometimes her days there last as long as from 9:00am-7:00pm, with a full slate of classes including Music Theory, ear training, orchestra, chorus, private lessons, and chamber music.
In addition to her Juilliard endeavors, Stern has achieved many other musical accomplishments. In 2007, she placed second in the International Flute Competition—the highest ranking any American has ever achieved. She is currently the principal flutist of Juilliard’s highest pre-college orchestra. Over the years she has participated in many master classes with internationally-acclaimed artists.
As a serious musician, Stern strives to practice between three and four hours a day. This is not easy to do in such a stressful environment as Choate, but she manages her time well. “I’ve learned over the years to be really efficient, but I also notice that when I don’t do other things my music suffers, because it becomes too limited,” she explained. “When I play sports, it helps with breath, and it helps with stamina, and it helps to clear my head, so I always try to make time for that.”
The week and a half before the recital Stern went into “practice overdrive.” She explained that the week of a recital she needs a minimum of four hours of practice each day, as well as additional rehearsals with her pianist. Elizabeth described the exhausting preparation for her recital: “Musically it has to be there, technically it has to be there, with the accompanist it has to be there, and you have to be able to present yourself onstage and know the music so well that when you get up there and you get nervous you’re not just playing notes—you know what you’re doing—and you could do it in your sleep if you had to.”
Stern performed a wide variety of works, including a Bach Sonata, a concerto by Ibert, and Granados’ Two Venezuelan Etudes for solo flute.
Choate friends and faculty joined the audience for her recital and were amazed by the quality of her performance. Mrs. Rodenhizer of the college office praised Stern: “Elizabeth's performance was a class act from start to finish! She played with tremendous intensity and emotion, so much that I was drawn right into her music. Elizabeth performed with poise and maturity. At times I forgot that she was a high school student.”
Ms. Schulz, Stern’s college counselor, also complimented her performance: “Elizabeth's deep passion for her music was clearly evidenced in her performance yesterday. She is an exquisite artist—poised, graceful and captivating. She emits a warm presence on stage, naturally drawing the audience to her.”
Elizabeth Stern ’08 performed at her Juillard Pre-College senior recital on Saturday, January 12. Stern has played in the pre-college program at Juillard for seven years, she also placed second in the International Flute Competition in 2007. PHOTO/Contributed Photo
