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Plano virtuoso speaks through music
By Josh Hixson, Staff Writer
The notes dance off Shannon Lee’s violin and communicate greatness to even the most untrained ear.
At 15 years old, this award-winning violinist and Plano native has already recorded an album and been a featured soloist with symphonies from Dallas to Eugene, Ore.
If you ask Shannon what she thinks about being a virtuoso, don’t expect her to brag, she has been playing since learned how to speak.
“You are giving to the audience and they are giving back,” Shannon said. “It is really exciting, and that is why it is great to play for people in a performance.”
Her list of accomplishments includes a 2007 Davidson Fellow Scholarship, a silver medal in the 2006 Stulberg International String Competition and being named a “young master” by the Texas Commission on the Arts in 2006.
Jan Mark Sloman — Shannon’s teacher and principal associate concertmaster for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra — said unlike many modern violinists, Shannon isn’t physically expressive when she plays.
She doesn’t have to be; the music does the talking for her, Sloman said.
“In the big-fiddle world, she is regarded by various serious performers and teachers as one of the great talents in the last 50 years,” Sloman said. “She doesn’t have huge emotive gestures, but what comes out is extraordinary expressive and refined.
“In this expressive world she creates she understands the language of the violin,” Sloman said.
Shannon’s mother, Frances, describes her daughter’s genesis on the violin as almost accidental.
“I was waiting for her to get big enough to play piano because we had a piano at home,” Frances said.
“My mom was looking for piano lessons because she used to play piano when she was little,” Shannon said. “All the piano teachers said my hands were too small because I was three.”
Frances said the teachers suggested she enroll her daughter in rhythm classes for pre-school aged children. She said the first time Shannon saw a violin it was love at first sight.
“When she first saw the violin she just froze,” Frances said. “She saw this five-year-old boy playing, and she just wanted to play.”
Teachers began to notice Shannon’s gift immediately.
“We knew right away, but we never told her,” Frances said. “I wanted her to use the instrument to develop a good work ethic.”
Nearly 11 years later, Shannon is getting ready to enter her junior year at Spring Creek Academy. She has played on NPR’s “From the Top,” traveled with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as a soloist and will soon be a recording artist.
Shannon’s album, tentatively titled “Introducing Shannon Lee,” is set for release in March 2008.
Sloman said they are in the finishing stages of editing the album. Those who have heard it say it is so remarkable, it brought them to tears, he said.
“She is amazing,” Sloman said. “She has everything it takes to become a great well-known international solo violinist.”
For those who have not had a chance to here Shannon play, don’t fret. Shannon is strongly considering a career as a concert violinist and recording artist.
“I’m not really sure yet, but I think a career in violin would be really fun,” she said.
Contact Josh Hixson at jhixson@acnpapers.com
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