CHS orchestra senior sextet plays final notes of appreciations for teacher, program

MAPLEWOOD, NJ __ Six seniors graduating from Columbia High School are leaving as the de facto leaders of the school’s orchestra. Some of them joined on a whim, others needed to fill a slot in their schedules.

Whatever the reason, they’re leaving CHS with a harmonious bond as leaders of the orchestra and a deep appreciation for Todd Van Beveren, music teacher who leads the CHS Orchestra and other district string programs.

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“They’re all best friends. This group of guys has just made the orchestra a family,” said Van Beveren in a press release from the South Orange & Maplewood School District. “They are nice kids who are leaders of the orchestra.”

Here’s the group of six graduating seniors:

• Job Campbell , who plays the viola, has committed to the prestigious Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, where he will major in viola performance and composition. He was also accepted to five other highly regarded music programs.
• Niles Scott, who plays all orchestral string instruments, will attend the John Cali School of Music at Montclair State University on a full scholarship.  He will major in bass performance.
• Nnabueze Opara, who plays the viola, has committed to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he will major in finance.
• Christian Gay, who plays the viola, will attend the New Jersey Institute of Technology and major in computer science.
• Wyatt Jackson, who plays the violin, will attend the University of Delaware, where he will major in mathematics.
• Elijah Dessources, who plays the viola, is deciding which college to attend but is firm in his decision to major in computer science.

Orchestral origins

Campbell said he joined orchestra “on a whim.” “It was just fun to me, so I kept doing it,” he said.

He said he chose the viola, which is a little larger than a violin, because his friends, Nnabueze Opara and Christian Gay, were already playing that instrument.

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“Everybody chose violin. I wanted to be different,” said Gay, remembering the decision he made as a fifth-grader. “As I started playing the instrument, I was glad I made that decision.”

Even Jackson, a violinist who has played every orchestral stringed instrument, prefers the viola’s sound.

“I personally like the darker tones in music,” Jackson said.

Ultimately, he found the violin to be a better fit ­– closer to his personality whereas the viola was, as he put it, “outside of who I am.”

But Campbell said the viola was a perfect match for the person he has now become.

“The viola never gets a solo. You don’t play the melody that often. We’re in the middle,” Campbell said. “As I developed as a person, I found myself not to be like the hot shot. I found myself not to be the solid rock, like the cello or the bass. I found myself somewhere in between – the sort of stuff in between that holds everything together.”

Campbell said he got serious with the viola during the pandemic shut down when he was a freshman. When school reopened the following year, he started taking free private lessons from Van Beveren.

Bass player Niles Scott says he fell into the orchestra program in middle school. He needed to add a class to complete his eighth-grade schedule and his counselor suggested orchestra. He chose the violin, but he skipped virtual orchestra sessions when he was doing remote learning as a freshman during the pandemic.

“I wasn’t in class. I wasn’t playing at home,” Scott said. “I was probably sleeping.”

Van Beveren’s phone call to Scott’s mother ended his truancy. But it wasn’t until he was in orchestra in-person that he truly got engaged. “It made me step up a lot,” he said. Playing with older musicians also inspired him.

A little less than two years ago, Scott started playing the bass —a decision that impacted him profoundly.

“I don’t want to sound crazy, but there’s a power you have with bass,” he said.

In the short time that Scott has had that power, he has won high praise from his teacher.

“He is one of the best bass players in high school, probably on the East Coast,” said Van Beveren.

MSU’s John Cali School of Music also thinks highly of Scott’s playing. In addition to awarding him a scholarship, the school has given him a brand new bass to play in college.

Lessons in music and leadership

Nnabueze Opara said the orchestra prepares you, as an older student, to lead.
“Mr. VB prepares you by putting you in roles where you may feel uncomfortable,” he said.

Upperclassmen often run sectional rehearsals for instruments or even entire orchestra rehearsals. Van Beveren said this is on purpose to cultivate the next generation of music educators.

“Letting kids conduct, letting them run a rehearsal, gives them that sense that, ‘Hey, you’ve got it in you to teach, too,’” he said.

Campbell said he is aware of the leadership baton being passed to him as younger players joined the orchestra.

“I kind of understand that now people do look to me. The younger violists kind of eye me, looking to me, and I’ve had this sense of leadership,” he said. “It’s helped grow those leadership qualities.”

Moving on

What was a whim turned into quite an accomplishment for Campbell. He was accepted to many of the top musical schools in the country, in addition to Eastman: Oberlin College’s Conservatory of Music, the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Michigan.

“The kid practices eight hours a day,” said Van Beveren, his teacher, a.k.a. “Mr. VB” among the students. “He’s always playing. Any free period, after school, whenever. He’s in here playing.”

Van Beveren notes that Campbell is a product solely of the District’s orchestra program. His additional instruction at the renowned Kinhaven Music School in Vermont, led by local residents Anthony Mazzocchi and Deborah Buck, was an opportunity he secured through the program, Van Beveren said.

Campbell said graduating is “like a feeling of leaving home.”

Whether they’ll continue studying music or not, each of these student musicians is mindful of what they will take from their orchestra experience.

“I’m going to take the friendships I made,” said Jackson. “I’m going to try and commit to saving them as much as I can throughout the years so that this friend group never breaks apart.”

Elijah Dessources, a future computer scientist, was crystal clear about his takeaway from the orchestra experience.

“One of the first things I’ll take with me is being able to make a bond with a teacher,” said Dessources, who described himself as an introvert in school. “Mr. VB was one of the first teachers I was able to actually bond with and talk to. He was very welcoming.”

Campbell compared Van Beveren to the biblical Abraham, the father of many, for the tremendous number of people he has taught throughout his 30-year career who are now performers and music educators. Opara agreed.

“It’s actually insane how many orchestra teachers have gone through this program,” he said. “So many people who, if it were not for one guy, would not be doing what they’re doing.”

Said Scott: “The reason we’re in this place to begin with is because of Mr. VB,” Scott said.

With a broad smile, Van Beveren responded.

“This is a very special group of guys.”

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