“Sarah Brown, a violinist for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic,” started lessons at age four, writes Melissa Howell in Monday’s (10/8) Oklahoman. Her mother, also a violinist, “ ‘played in a community orchestra here in Edmond…,’ Brown said…. Brown’s teacher [was] Royce McLarry … currently … principal viola for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic…. In high school, Brown entered the Buttram Music Competition … conducted by the Oklahoma City Orchestra League, an organization created to support orchestral music in the community. She won both the violin competition and the overall competition, which afforded her the opportunity to perform for Maestro Joel Levine, who recently retired from the Oklahoma City Philharmonic…. She substituted with the Philharmonic while obtaining her bachelor’s degree at the University of Oklahoma, then played in an orchestra in Chicago while studying for her master’s degree. It was a series of dominoes that led her back to Oklahoma City and a contract position with the Philharmonic. Arguably, the Oklahoma City Orchestra League and the Buttram Music Competition were a vital springboard to her music career. And not just Brown’s career, but numerous others, including McLarry, who won the Orchestra League’s Young People’s Auditions when he was in high school in the 1980s.”
Posted October 11, 2018
