Young Artist Kathryn René to Perform

Katie René
Young Artist

Kathryn (Katie) René, is this year's winner of the Concord Band's Young Artist Scholarship, will perform at the Concord Band's Winter Concert, Saturday March 7 at 8:15pm. The Young Artist Competition is now in its third year. Katie, 16, is a junior at Lowell High School, where she is an honors student recently inducted into the National Honor Society. A flutist for six years, Katie is an active member of the Lowell High Marching and Concert Bands, the Jazz Band and the A Capella Choir. She is also a member of the Chelmsford Community Band, the Chelmsford Flute Choir, and the Timberlaine Flute Choir in Plaistow, NH.

Never one to miss an opportunity to expand her musical horizons, Katie has attended band camp at the Univiversity of Massachusetts at Lowell, where she has studied under David Martins, director of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony, and Prof. Daniel Lutz, whose Concord Band commission, Dichotomy... Impressions of Kerouac, was premiered last fall. She also attended the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy, and hopes to lead the LHS Band on the field in her senior year. Katie is also a member of both the National Flute Association and the Greater Boston Flute Association, and has attended master classes taught by James Galway, internationally recognized flutist, and Fenwick Smith of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Not satisfied to play only one instrument, Katie also plays the piccolo, oboe, baritone horn and piano. Musical talent runs in Katie's family: Her mother, Vanessa René, who is a long-time member of the Concord Band, plays oboe and English horn; her younger brother plays alto saxophone; and her younger sister plays French horn. Upon graduation from high school, Katie plans to attend Boston University, where she will major in Music Education.

A devotee particularly of the Romantic and Impressionist styles of music, Katie has chosen to perform Concertino for Flute Solo by Cecile Chaminade, an Impressionist era French composer. Her flute teacher, Theresa Dovydaitis D'Errico, has encouraged and nurtured Katie's talents in this period, as is apparent in her rendition of the Chaminade.

The Band wishes Katie good luck on her debut. We hope that, like previous Concord Band Young Artists, she will inspire other talented young instrumentalists to apply for this scholarship.