By: Armin Ohadi, GHS Class of 2021, Skidmore College Class of 2025
I recently had the pleasure of bringing Armin Ohadi, a recent Greenwich High School graduate and 8 year participant in the Greenwich Alliance for Education’s Tuning In To Music program to have lunch with Mary Radcliffe. Mary, as most of our community knows, was the President of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra (GSO) for 37 years and made it possible for GSO musicians to teach Master Classes to our Tuning In To Music students in 2017 and 2018. I wanted Mary and Armin to meet because they both love music and deeply value music education and the opportunities it has offered to each of them. I also knew they would appreciate sharing their personal music stories – and I was right. Mary beams when she speaks of her beloved Oberlin College in Ohio. I am sharing Armin’s musical journey in this article. It certainly highlights Greenwich Public School’s extensive music offerings, the Alliance’s gift of lessons and the joy music can bring. Enjoy!
My music journey through the Greenwich Public Schools began at the age of four when my parents signed me up for Hamilton Avenue School’s Suzuki program. This program was structured along Dr. Suzuki’s teaching method: the “Mother-Tongue Approach.” This approach was inspired by the idea that children would learn how to play music with the same ease in which they learned to speak their native language (“Mother-Tongue”). With the introduction of this program, Hamilton Avenue School students, like me, were able to learn to play their respective string instruments years ahead of their peers at the other elementary schools.
In-school instruction took place once a week for thirty minutes. The Suzuki teacher, Ms. Elizabeth Nilsen-Baumwoll, also offered to teach additional classes before school to interested students. I attended all of these early morning classes. Instruction before school allowed for my parents to attend, and soon they became more knowledgeable about the violin.
My parents were dedicated to my musical enrichment: they brought me to early morning classes, played classical music in the car, watched violin lesson videos with me, and encouraged me to practice my violin every day. With their support and my developing skills in the violin, I became part of a group of five students who played in special performances at every Hamilton Avenue music concert, separate from the rest of the Suzuki group.
In 2nd grade, I performed at Carnegie Hall, for the first time, with the other members of our select Suzuki group. We played with other select student performers from across the country in a sold-out performance. The concert was organized by The School for Strings in New York City, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Strings School.
By 3rd grade, I graduated from the Suzuki program and transitioned into the older student orchestra with teacher Ms. Mercy Vaillancourt. Similar to my time in the Suzuki program, I was invited to join extra morning instruction with other advanced students. In addition to school concerts, I was nominated to participate in the annual town-wide music festival in third, forth, and fifth grades alongside a select group of high-achieving elementary and middle school students.
In 4th grade, Ms. Mercy Vaillancourt nominated me for the Tuning In To Music (TITM) program through the Greenwich Alliance for Education. TITM provided me and the other band and orchestra students with weekly private and semi-private instrumental lessons with excellent teachers at the Connecticut School of Music. Joining the program deepened my interest and appreciation for the violin. The additional opportunity for guided instruction gave me even more motivation to continue practicing every day to become an even better violinist.
At Western Middle School, my interest in the violin grew exponentially with Ms. Jillian Corey as my teacher. I was part of the orchestra program and joined the Pops Orchestra for all three years of middle school. The Pops Orchestra is an ensemble of string students who meet after school, once a week, to further their playing skills by taking on an additional musical challenge. It was fun learning how to play songs that I heard on the radio, in movies, and in TV shows. This showed me that I was not limited to playing only classical music on my violin. As a young student that made me even more excited to continue practicing.
In 6th grade, I once again was nominated to participate in the annual town-wide music festival. At the beginning of 7th grade, I participated in the first of three Master Classes, a benefit of participating in the Tuning In To Music program through the Alliance. As I look back at my 8 years in the program, these classes were the most memorable. At two of them I played alongside a Greenwich Symphony musician. Having the opportunity to learn from professional violinists has been both an enlightening and motivating experience.
In 7th grade, I auditioned and was accepted to join the Fairfield County String Music Festival, a once-a-year event that brought together the best 6th-9th grade string players in the county. Additionally, later that year, I auditioned and was accepted into the Stamford Young Artists Philharmonic. Joining this ensemble truly challenged me as a musician. We rehearsed once a week and worked on music far above the middle school level. On May 3rd, 2016 for our final performance of the year, and my second time, we performed at Carnegie Hall.
At Greenwich High School, my passion for the violin and making music continued to grow and take form as a member of the orchestra program with Ms. Bethany Fuscaldo as my teacher. I participated in orchestra all four years at Greenwich High. In 9th grade, I once again auditioned and joined the Fairfield County String Music Festival. By 11th grade, with two friends, I formed a band and played the guitar. At the age of seven, I was learning both the guitar and the violin. Making music of my own, allowed me to synthesize all that I had learned about the composition and arrangement aspects of the musical process. It also gave me experience with sound design, production, and mixing.
Recently, as a graduation gift, I was given a beautiful violin by a Greenwich Alliance Tuning In To Music benefactor. This amazing gift allows me to continue my passion for music in college. I plan to play this violin in Skidmore College’s string ensemble and a chamber group.
