Rites of passage
Cello instructor Mollie Glazer invites her teenage students to perform in concert
By Marli Guzzetta
It takes a special sort to be a cello player. In addition to spending hours with proper posture in your chair, you also have the responsibility of transporting and protecting a large and quite expensive piece of musical equipment through all the elements, across school campuses and often with a book bag in tow.

RTS From left: Cello students Grace McClellan, Zeb Bennett, River Bennett and their instructor Mollie Glazer will perform as an ensemble at the Nantucket Histrical Association this Sunday.

But then the day comes when you realize you are beginning to know your instrument beyond its capacity to create notes on a sheet of music - the time when you start to learn how to make it sing. And then things come pretty fast. Your instructor, for example, might just invite you to do a concert with her.

This is what happened for local cellists Grace McClellan and Zen and River Bennett - local students who will be performing in a concert with one of their instructors, Mollie Glazer, this Sunday.

"They're all at a place when I can treat them like professionals and say, 'I want you to do this concert with me. It's for the public, it's not just for parents' That is a tremendous achievement," said Glazer, who has been teaching cello to students for 30 years. "They are ready for me to put something on the stand in front of them and to expect that they can put something together quickly, like professionals. They can work out notes, and I don't have to teach them how to play."

Each student will be playing a solo on cello, with accompaniment from Glazer. River's piece is Vivaldi, Zeb is playing Breval and Grace will perform a Handel hand-picked for her by Glazer. Glazer will also play a solo with Bach's Solo for Cellos before all four musicians re-join for quartets to end the recital.

Each student made his or her own strides in the months leading up to the concert.

"At the moment, River wants to know everything: theory, harmony, how things are put together, how they're made tighter. It's like he had an awakening," Glazer said of the teenage musician who also sings in the Accidentals and Naturals and plays the guitar and piano.

"I like the tones and the deep sound," said River, a sophomore who picked up the cello as a fifth grader. "It's interesting to think about the cello being the closest instrument to the human voice. If you look at it, it also has a body figure. It's interesting to tie those together."

In the seventh grade, Zeb auditioned with students from 75 other Massachusetts schools to make it into the Southeast District Junior Symphony Orchestra in March.

He began playing the cello as a second grader wanting to ape his older brother. Now, he also plays the cello and bass guitar and is learning mandolin and piano.

"Cello is versatile. You can play it with any other music, and it has a deep sound," he said. "Also I started bass a year ago, and the cello helped me pick it up so much."

Glazer added that McClellan has made "tremendous strides in having the courage to be expressive."

"It takes courage to be expressive, especially for teenagers," said Glazer, who has known McCellan since the student was a wide-eyed 3 year old, carrying her older sister's sheet music to lessons.

"The show is intended to show our community the talent we have in our kids and what's new with the music

school," said Glazer. I

When: Sunday, March 11, 1-2 p.m. Where: Nantucket Historical Association Whaling

Museum (Gosnell Hall), 13 Broad Street

Cost: Free (NHA members); included with the museum

admission of $15 to all others. For more information, please call 228-1894.