ART SCENE

Sunday, April 13, 2008

MSYO oboist wins summer with NSO  

For the second year in a row, a member of the Mobile Symphony Youth Orchestra will represent Alabama in the prestigious Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute.

Kemp Jernigan, a senior at Gulf Shores High School and principal oboe with the MSYO, was selected to the National Symphony Orchestra/Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute in Washington, D.C. He will receive an all-expenses-paid four weeks of study with the NSO and Opera House in Washington.

State finalists, selected by audition, are submitted to the Kennedy Center for final decisions. Fifty-five students nationwide were selected for the orchestra, with only two oboes.

The fellowship includes chamber music study, conducting, orchestral works and private lessons with prominent conductors and musicians. Students perform as an orchestra and in chamber groups, presenting public concerts on the Kennedy Center Millennium stage and in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Kemp has been principal oboe with the Youth Orchestra for three years and principal oboe for the Alabama All-State Orchestra the past two years. He attended the New England Conservatory for two summers, Eastman Music summer program, and the Ameropa Chamber Festival in Prague in 2007.

In the fall he will attend the Hartt School of Performing Arts in West Hartford, Conn., on full scholarship. He was selected by audition for membership in Hartt's prestigious 20/20 honors chamber music program.

In 2007 violinist Peter Kim, concertmaster for MSYO, was Alabama's representative to the Kennedy Center Program.

In other Mobile Symphony news, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded the MSO $30,000 in grants to help fund the orchestra's "Preludes" program and for run-out performances in Clark and Washington counties.