- My name is Jane Story,
and I'm a 17-year-old junior from Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
I've been playing the violin for 13 years.
I always heard classical music growing up.
My mom's a singer, my dad does classical and jazz double-bass.
So it was just always around, always a part of my life.
[bright string music]
I'm going to be performing
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, first movement.
It has such a wide range of emotions.
There are places where it's very sweet and sentimental,
and there's other places where
it sounds like the violin is screaming in pain.
And I love the range of colors that I get to create.
Probably my favorite part of the piece
is, towards the end of the movement,
there's this huge octave run.
[rapidly ascending notes]
It's a great technical challenge and it's also very exciting.
I am currently studying with Dr. Anna Cromwell
at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
I have been wanting to play this concerto for a very long time,
but I never talked to my teacher about it.
I was very excited when she told me
that it would be my next piece to learn.
- And so we really want the motion to happen here.
- Jane: I really like how she focuses on both
the technical and the musical side
of my development as a musician.
Dr. Cromwell and I began working on this piece
at the beginning of the summer.
We really focused on the technical challenges first.
Lately, we've been working on the musical side:
the beautiful long lines and creating a contrast
between the different characters.
Because there are playful characters,
there's sweet characters, and there's angry characters.
- Yeah, okay, I think that was better.
- Jane: I've been a member of WYSO for about two years.
My family and I drive down there every weekend.
Being a part of WYSO has taught me a lot
about listening carefully and carving my sound
so that it fits within a section.
Because the audience doesn't want to hear just me;
they want to hear everyone as one big, beautiful sound.
Performing in the Final Forte in 2022
was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
When you finish a piece,
it's almost like you don't remember anything
that's just happened.
It's like it's only been a second
since you just stepped on stage.
Except you feel like you're a completely different person
because you've gone on a journey with the piece.
I think my favorite thing about playing music
is that there's never an end point.
You can always learn something new, create something different,
or explore a different side of each piece that you learn.
I think music is just the most wonderful thing,
and violin is my way of being a part of the music.
[audience applauding]