Spotlight on Festival Hill: A Violinist from Michigan

The Round Top Festival Hill Orchestra began its six week training program on June 14.

Kim LaFranzo, a participant in the program, is one of the orchestra’s violists. Kim has been playing the viola since she was five years old, and has continued through college, where she’s studying viola performance at the University of Michigan. She will be a senior this year.

Kim began her journey with music at age five, when her parents took her into a music instrument store and asked her to pick one out. “We went to this shop, and my mom said, ‘What do you want to play?’ I pointed at a viola and said ‘What’s that?’ and the rest is history.”

Kim comes from a very musical family, with her mom being a cellist in the Boston Conservatory and her dad a pianist. “I’ve been kind of stuck with music my whole life, which I’m very grateful for.”

Kim’s love for orchestra and performance began in high school when she performed with the Chicago Symphony, and it was during a performance with them that she realized that she wanted to be a professional violist and play in an orchestra. After college, she plans on auditioning for orchestras like the Detroit Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony, while also owning her own viola studio. According to Kim, the pathway to becoming a professional violist is difficult. While her experience has been positive because her parents are both involved in the arts, going to a school that doesn’t have an arts program her entire life made it difficult to stay on track with her goal. “My high school didn’t have an arts program, so in the beginning it was hard to stay consistent with my path, and being in a school that doesn’t fund the arts can be very frustrating, but when I got to college my whole life became music, and that’s when it got a lot easier to realize ‘Oh, this is why I’m doing this,’and I think It’s up to people like us to put our foot down and tell people how important the arts are,” she said.

Kim decided to audition for Festival Hill because, “I’ve never done an orchestra program before, and I want to be a part of an orchestra one day. That’s my dream. It’s hard to describe how much I love orchestra in words, and this festival is so wonderful because it gives you that professional experience, because what we do here is what professionals do. We have a week to prepare a program, and then we do it, and then you’re moving on to the next, and that’s so important at our age to get a glimpse of what life will actually be like as a professional”.

“My experience here has been amazing,” she said. “Last week I was principal, and that really tested my leadership skills, and I think that was super important, because I’ve been principal in other orchestras, but this festival is so high level, and so high demand, it really tests the limits of what you can do. And I chose this place because it gives a glimpse of what my life is going to be like, and I also get to collaborate with some amazing musicians”.

She continues, “This has been one of my most positive orchestral experiences I’ve had in a long time. A lot of people in the arts are forced to, and I’ve met a lot of people that don’t want to be in orchestra, but everyone here is here because they want to be, and I think the reason I’ve had such a positive experience because the people here have so much love for making music together and building this community, and that’s what I think music is all about.”

When asked about her favourite experience at Festival Hill, Kim said that learning from Susan Debois was her main highlight. “My lessons with her were amazing, and I learned so much. You really get to ‘learn how to learn’ here, and learning with Susan has definitely been my number one experience.”

If you would like to see Kim along with the rest of the Festival Hill Orchestra perform, you can purchase tickets for their concerts on their website, at FestivalHill.org.