My name is Atticus Coen. I am 18 years old and I go to Sun
Prairie East High School. I play the piano and I've played
since kindergarten.
I have one sister. She's 16 years old. She plays the
clarinet. We play music together a lot, actually.
I work at Primal Cue. My whole friend group works there.
That's really nice to have something that's also different
from music where it's just straightforward. I'm also doing,
at my school, the musical, "Big Fish" and I'm in the pit for
that on the keyboard. Playing in the pit is a very unique
experience. Things can go wrong and you have to really be
always ready to like jump ahead or to jump backwards. A lot of
music just speaks to me.
I'm really into jazz. It's really free. It's one of the
most expressive forms of music.
"Short course, keep it dry." I'm currently studying at Melodiya
Piano Academy under Lana Robotewskyj. And I've been there
with her for eight years. She really changed how I practiced
and how music was presented to me. "That sounded great." She
brought me to where I am today.
I think performing with the Madison Symphony Orchestra is
going to be really great. I will be playing the Gershwin
Piano Concerto in F major. My teacher Lana helped me select
this piece. She knew I have this love for jazz and Gershwin
has a deep connection between classical and jazz music. It
has so much contrast. The beginning is very introspective
and then later, it's bouncy and fun and exciting. It's going
around all these different characters and just their lives
and how they kind of all intertwine.
Music really allows me to express myself without using my
words. Everything that I really have been doing has been
revolving around music.