KVYSO senior spotlight on Breckon Davidson

Breckon Davidson, left, with his grandfather, John Shields. (contributed photo)

Submitted by Jen Tuminaro

The Kennebec Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra (KVYSO), is proud to feature Breckon Davidson, a senior at Erskine Academy, in South China, in our Senior Spotlight article. He is a talented, diligent musician whose participation in KVYSO has added to the quality and level of ensemble community.

Breckon began his musical journey with piano lessons, from age six until he was nine. At that point, he picked up the cello after seeing Pineland Suzuki School (an organization of strings teachers in central Maine) perform at Granite Hill Estates.

“Working with Pineland in the beginning of my cello playing was amazing, and they had such a refined program for beginners. They had so many group classes, activities, and just made learning cello something that I had a ton of fun to do,” explained Breckon, eventually joining the Allegra Orchestra (Pineland’s beginner ensemble). “My favorite piece that we played with them was the theme to Jurassic Park.”

After auditioning for Kennebec Valley Youth Orchestra (KVYSO’s intermediate orchestra), he was not able to play with them that year in person due to Covid restrictions, but it “only fueled my excitement further. In the fall of 2020, we were able to play in person for the first time in what felt like forever, and it felt exhilarating to be part of an orchestra again.” After a year with KVYO, Breckon began playing with Kennebec Valley Youth Symphony (KVYSO’s advanced orchestra). “That was a huge deal, because that would be the first time in my life that I would be playing a full, unaltered symphony in concert. This was the real deal, and I took it very seriously.”

Around this time, Breckon joined Capital Strings (Pineland’s advanced ensemble) and started taking lessons with Jon Moody. “In Capital Strings, we got to play incredible arrangements of so many kinds of music, whether they be film scores, contemporary classical, folk music, what have you, and it was a joy. Eventually, I started doing the Bach cello suites, and have loved working on them ever since.”

In addition to being a member of KVYSO and Pineland, Breckon is also a part of the Jazz Band at Erskine, where he recently picked up bass. “At first it was like a whole new language, playing bass, but eventually I got the hang of it, and recently played in a concert at Erskine where I played bass in the Jazz Band and a jazz quartet, and played cello for a solo and for my composition class group.”

Music has been part of Breckon’s life for a long time. “I absolutely adore music, and it is an ever-present part of my life. There’s rarely a time that I’m not listening to music, the majority of it being classical. I’ve loved classical music for so long, and I find its rich textures and harmonies to be unlike any other type of music that I know of.”

As for future plans, Breckon plans on going to college as a biology major to become a psychiatrist. “As much as I love music, I also have a great passion for science, and find psychology to be the most fascinating one to me, so I’ll make it my career.” We wish Breckon well as he pursues his goals after his time with us at KVYO is done.

We invite you to support Breckon and the Kennebec Valley Youth Orchestras for the Spring Concert on Friday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m., at the South Parish Congregation Church, in Augusta. Daniel Keller will be conducting our KVYO, with Jinwook Park conducting our KVYSO. The concert will feature the music of Mendelssohn, Debussy, Vivaldi, and more! In addition to joining them on May 5, please consider following them on Facebook and Instagram (Kennebec Valley Youth Symphony Orchestras). If you would like to donate to our program, please visit their website at https://www.kvyso.org/. They truly appreciate your support of our program!