By Laura Lane
"I stayed backstage for around ten minutes," said Wang, an eighth grader at Clarke Middle School. "Going out to tune the orchestra as the concertmaster is the reward for the leadership responsibilities you do during the rehearsals. I knew they'd call me out sooner or later but I was nervous waiting."
Wang, whose been perfecting his skills on the violin since he was six, takes his responsibilities seriously. He'd been the concertmaster before at the All County Music Festival. But that was two years ago.
The concert, held annually at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, usually sells out. Members of All County are the more talented student musicians from all over Long Island.
"Being the concertmaster was different for me this time because I'm more mature and I kept thinking of all of the responsibilities the job laid upon me," said Wang. "Once you become the concertmaster it's even harder than the audition process was because you have to continue to make a good impression on the orchestra. And I guess the biggest challenge is not to make a mistake during the performance, that would look pretty bad."
The concertmaster has many responsibilities, the most visible being tuning the orchestra prior to a performance. Wang also was required to help the conductor during the rehearsals, be prepared himself, and play to perfection.
Participants in the All County Music Festival only meet for three rehearsals to perfect the challenging music. Most have never met each other prior to these rehearsals but what they do have in common is their remarkable skill as players.
Members of the festival have already undergone New York State School Music Association testing by preparing a solo piece from a manual devised by the organization. The students evaluated and graded by music educators, are required to not only perform their piece perfectly but also to sight read, which is to play music they've never seen before.
There are different levels in NYSSMA. Consideration for the All County Music Festival is only given to students earning upper level near perfect scores. The older you get, the more the competition increases and the more honorable it becomes to be a part of the group.
This year Wang beat 164 other violinists to become concertmaster. He had a month to prepare for his audition to acquire the position, which was to perform a piece of the concert music.
"Jason is incredibly mature for his age as far as his playing is concerned," said Adrianna Donovan, the orchestra director at Clarke Middle School. "He's the most modest musician I've ever met, always willing to help out the other kids. He's actually more advanced than most high school students I've had."
Described as easy going Wang is a typical kid who enjoys playing video games, swimming and socializing with friends. He also loves other types of music, admitting that he listens to heavy metal, rock, and punk as well as classical music.
Wang is technically a superior violinist, but he also possesses visible emotion when he plays, unusual for a musician his age.
"He had the emotion since he was a little kid," said Barbara Weber, his violin teacher who is also an East Meadow resident. "When I originally saw him play, I called the principal and said you don't know what you have. At seven years old, he played like an adult emotionally. He has the talent to become a violinist, he's a rare talent."
But Wang isn't considering a lifelong commitment to music. He's tossing around a few other careers, though he was reticent to share which ones. A highest honor student at Clarke, he's busy with his studies, playing with the high school pit band for 'Cinderella,' and preparing for the next NYSSMA.
"I'm preparing for level six (the highest level) for my third time for the next NYSSMA," said Wang, who added, that playing the violin would always be a part of his life. "What makes being in All County exciting for me and hard, is that the people there are just as good as I am and competing with them is fun. And the performance is so much fun too. It's great to perform music for people."
