Little Neck teen violinist set to take stage at Carnegie HallBy John Tozzi04/27/2006 | ||
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Everyone knows the old gag about how to get to Carnegie Hall: Practice, practice, practice. But most musicians don't have all that practice under their belts while they're still in high school.
But Jeremy Stein Cushman, a 15-year-old Little Neck violinist, does. The Cardozo High School sophomore started playing at age 5, soloed with the Great Neck Philharmonic at 8 and has been practicing for three hours a day since he was 10. On May 27, he will take the stage at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the American Fine Arts Festival competition for young musicians. "Obviously it's great," Jeremy said of the chance to play at one of the world's most famous music venues. "I loved the violin from the beginning." Although he had begged his mother, Elissa, to let him play the violin from age 2, she said, she decided to wait until he was 5. At age 9, he won a CBS talent show and gained attention from there. |
He performed at Microsoft's annual convention in 2002 in front of an audience of 14,000 at the New Orleans Superdome and was invited back twice. He has done three Knicks half-time shows at Madison Square Garden. Internationally he has played in Argentina, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.
"I don't get too nervous about the performances," Jeremy said, adding that he enjoys the excitement of playing for big crowds. He also has to balance his musical career with school and his social life. "I try not to have the violin interfere too much with school," he said. Mostly he gives up sleep, his mother joked. And Elissa Cushman said music is easily woven into their family life. She is a musician herself as is Rebecca Cushman, her 13-year-old daughter. "It's been something that's been so much a part of our life from when he was very, very little," she said. "It doesn't affect our daily life as much as you might expect." |
Jeremy said he also enjoys playing at local hospitals, senior centers and charities in Queens and Long Island, including a benefit for United Cerebral Palsy at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University.
He recorded a charity CD when he was 10, and he's contemplating making another this summer. But the performances are not letting up. After Carnegie Hall, he will go in June to Arizona to play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra. Jeremy said he is not sure what he wants to do when he gets out of school, but he plans on a double major studying music and science or technology. But for now, all his hours of practice have paid off and performing is its own reward. "I love going out in front of audiences and playing the violin," he said. Reach reporter John Tozzi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 188. ©Times Ledger 2006 |